Festival by festival — the appropriate dress for each
Diwali in Chennai: the evening celebrations call for festive rather than solemn dress. A silk or Chanderi kurta in a warm colour — gold, amber, saffron, deep burgundy — with a churidar and optional bandi is the standard festive choice. The mood is celebratory; the dress can express personality and colour more freely than at formal ceremonial occasions. Pongal is South India's harvest festival with strong regional dress traditions: a veshti (dhoti) in white with a gold kasavu border, a matching shirt or angavastram, is the traditional Tamil dress for Pongal. Western clothing is also widely worn for Pongal, but traditional Tamil dress is seen as more authentic and appropriate. Eid: white kurta and salwar or churidar is traditional in most Indian Muslim communities. A crisp white cotton Pathani suit or a white kurta-churidar combination, freshly pressed and correctly sized, is the standard and most respected Eid choice. Onam: white kasavu veshti (mundu) with gold border and matching shirt is the traditional Kerala dress for Onam. The mundu is tied differently from a North Indian dhoti; the angavastram (the upper cloth draped over the shoulder) completes the ensemble.
Planning a festival wardrobe — thinking ahead
India's major festivals fall at predictable dates each year. Planning a festival wardrobe — commissioning one or two new festive garments each year rather than making a rushed purchase in the week before each festival — is both more economical and produces better results. A bespoke festive kurta in fine silk, commissioned in August for Diwali in October, allows time for the consultation, the fitting and the first wash-and-press cycle before the festival itself.
A well-planned festival wardrobe for a man in Chennai might include: a white or off-white Pathani suit or kurta for Eid; a gold or amber silk kurta with bandi for Diwali; a traditional kasavu mundu set for Onam or Pongal if Tamil or Malayalam connections make it appropriate; and one or two additional kurtas in different cloths and colours for the various social events that accompany each festival season. All of these can be commissioned at The Black Lapel, in some cases from the same pattern, which reduces the cost and time of each subsequent commission.