Wardrobe

┈I believe a person's wardrobe says a lot about the personality of a person as well as many other aspects of his/her life. I never paid much attention to it, but more I progress on this journey, the more I feel amazed. Markets are full of so many clothes and accessories, dedicated, specialized shops for every purpose. Sometimes, my mind boggles do we really need all this. There are so many varieties in the market, and have you ever wondered what does all mean. Are we so specific about our needs before buying the things.
One thing to ensure before buying a dress is the neckline.

Types of Necklines:

• Cowl neck
• Polo neck (circular): these are high close-fitting collars that wrap around the neck itself, and are also called turtlenecks. They are most common for sweaters (also called jumpers) or jerseys.

• Jewel neckline (circular): these are round and sit at the base of the throat, and are also called the T-shirt neckline or crew neck.

• scoop neck (curved, concave up)

these have a curved U-shape, with the arms of the U hanging on the shoulders. The depth of the U can vary, ranging from demure styles to plunging.

• V-neck (2–4 linear edges, side edges diverge)

originate from the middle east, these are formed by two diagonal lines from the shoulders that meet on the chest creating a V shape. The depth of the V can vary, ranging from demure styles to plunging. The surplice version of this neckline (known as a portrait neckline) is an alternative. The V may also be truncated by a small bottom edge, forming a trapezoid.

• square neck (linear side edges neither converge nor diverge)

these are characterized by three linear edges, the bottom edge meeting the side edges at right angles. The bottom edge cuts across the figure horizontally and the side edges pass over the shoulders. A special case of this is the slot neckline, in which the side edges are very close (roughly the width of the collar-bone points), forming a narrow slot.

• deep or plunging neck

these are low necklines, in either V, U or square shapes, that reveal varying amounts of cleavage, and some even extending to the natural waist line.

• boatneck (one edge, nearly linear)

these have a high, wide, slightly curved neckline that passes past the collarbones and hangs on both shoulders, and are also called bateau necklines or Sabrina necklines. A variation is the portrait neckline.

• off-the-shoulder (one edge, nearly linear. Also known as Carmen neckline)

these are similar to boat necklines but are significantly lower, below the shoulders and collarbone. Usually these pass over the arms but, in the strapless neckline style, may pass under the arms. These necklines accentuate the shoulders and neck of the wearer.

• one-shoulder necklines (one edge, nearly linear)

these are asymmetrical linear necklines that cut across the torso diagonally, usually from one shoulder to under the other arm.

• halter necklines (linear, side edges converge on the neck)

these feature a V-neck or scoop front neckline with straps which wrap around and connect at the nape of the neck.

• sweetheart necklines (side edges linear, curved bottom edge concave down)

these have a curved bottom edge that is concave down and usually doubly scalloped to resemble the top half of a heart. The side edges often converge on the neck, similar to halter necklines. Sweetheart necklines accentuate the bosom.

• keyhole necklines

these are similar to halter necklines, but the converging diagonal lines meet in front of the neck, forming a "keyhole". More generally, these feature a central hole, usually just below the collar bones. These necklines are seen infrequently.

• surplice neckline

these are similar to how a bathrobe's neckline is formed by one side of the garment overlapping the other. For a dress, the lower layer is usually sewn to the top layer just under the bust.

3. Herringbone: A V-shaped twill weave

4. Styles of dresses:

i. A -line

ii. peplum hem(edge, frill)

iii. tea-length: anything between knee to ankle length

iv. sheath dress: A women's close-fitting dress

v. wrap or belt dress

vi.mermaid

vii. bodycon

viii.maxi

ix. full skirt

x. empire waist

xi.baby doll
xii.schiffili dress: schiffili is a chemical lace, so a dress with this lace.

5. categories of dresses:

i. dresses and skirts
ii. tops and blouses
iii. jeans and pants
iv. jackets and coats
      a. Gilet: It is a sleeveless jacket.

Length of sleeves:

1. 3/4
2. sleeveless
3. Short
4. Ballon Sleeves
5. Flutter sleeve: Loose and short sleeves on the shoulder

Women clothing Categories:

1. Dresses
2. Skirts
3. Jackets(Quilted/ puffers), Cape and Poncho, Sweaters, and cardigans
4. Blazer and coats(trench coat)
5. Shorts
6. Jeans and Trousers 
7. Tights and leggings or Hosiery: Size is determined by the height and hips measurement(i.e S, M, L).
8. Capri pants
9. T-shirts, tops, and blouses
10. Jumpsuits
11. Sweatshirts with or without a hoodie

Men clothing:

1. Dress Shirts: slim/regular/body fit. Size indicates the size of the chest. M is 38-40"(96 cm)

If possible, be a conscious consumer, and prefer to buy the eco-friendly clothing and also certified products like OEKO-TEX standard 100 or organic.

Fabric care:

1. Hand wash or Machine wash or do not wash (i.e. dry clean) Dot indicates the temperature i.e. one dot=30 degree Celsius; two dots = 40-degree Celcius etc. up to 95-degree Celsius(usually for kitchen clothes). If there is no bar: cotton wash; a single bar underneath the bucket: synthetic wash(mild detergent) and permanent press setting; if double bar: wool wash/very mild detergent i.e. delicate setting.
2. Drip dry(wringing is not allowed ), flat dry or hang/line dry; Tumbler dry(circle inside a square): Dot indicates the drying temperature i.e. low, or high.
3. Bleach or do not bleach(triangle symbol with or without a diagonal line): only oxygen bleach or non-chlorinated bleach.
4. Iron or do not iron(i.e. permanent press) Iron symbol with the dot inside indicates the temperature.
5. Dy clean only (indicated by a circle with a letter P inside) 

On washing machines: Lower the temperature, less time
Express or halftime: Symbol is tumbler with a horizontal line
Diamond shape means to start washing.

Fashion Vs Personal Hygiene and common sense

It is not uncommon to confuse between fashion and personal hygiene. Many people are very resistant to fashion, I never understood why and even you ask them they even don't know. But, it is partly concerned with culture, morality and has deep roots. But, my point is that there is a clear distinction between fashion and personal hygiene. And, fashion is not a bad word or a taboo, it just takes little common sense to understand the purpose.

1. Sunscreen: Sunscreens are like medicines to protect us from the harmful effects of Ultra Violet (UV) rays and we should ensure to apply sunscreen before leaving the house.

2. SunGlasses: Many times we are totally biased and do the most illogical things. This is very true in the case of Sun Glasses. In a country like India, where sunglasses are either part of style and fashion or designate you as a blind. Wearing a sunglass does not make a person stylish, in fact not doing the right thing at the right time makes you foolish. It is equally important to use the sunglasses to protect our eyes from the harmful effects of UV rays as it is to protect our skin from the sun by applying sunscreens.

3. Hat, turban, scarf or headgears: Same goes for the headgears like hat or turban. They protect us from the harmful effects of sun rays. In fact, using an umbrella in sunshine serves the same purpose to protect us from the direct contact of harmful sun rays.

4. Scrubbers: Especially in our late twenties, we should make it routine to apply face and body scrubbers before bath. The logic is scrubber helps to remove the dead skin cells and thus increase the breathe-ability of our skin.

5. Toner: Scrubbers open our skin pores so that our skin can breathe properly. So, we should always apply a toner after scrubbing.

6. Moisturizer(Body lotions and/or day/night creams): Our body is over 60% water. We have to keep it hydrated to keep it working properly. And we take efforts to keep our body hydrated by drinking water, but when it comes to buying moisturizers, we find it as a waste of money. Scrubbing or washing the skin takes away the natural oils that keep our skin soft and moisturized. Wind, cold temperatures, and heated houses also take the moisture away from the skin. Therefore, it is very important to apply the external moisturizer to keep it soft and supple.  We have different moisturizers for different purposes. Face moisturizers are only meant for the face as our face is more prone to acne than other body parts as well as get more exposure to the sun, and wind and gets drier than other body parts. Depending on the type of work, hands and foot also get drier, so we have a special hand and foot creams to moisturize them. For lips, we have a lip balm to make them moisturize. Again, moisturizers usually come in two forms: lotion and cream. lotions are light and creams are relatively substantial, so depending on the body type(dry, sensitive) and season, we come to choose between cream or lotion. Always invest some time to read the labels of the product before buying them, like if someone has oily or acne-prone skin, they should ensure that their moisturizer is oil-free and non-comedogenic (i.e. not tending to cause blackheads by blocking the pores of the skin). Also, depending upon the age and condition of your skin, some ingredients might be helpful like these CoQ 10 i.e. coenzyme 10 is very popular as it acts as an antioxidant.

7. Hair Conditioner: Same goes for the hair conditioners. People have no problem with using shampoos to clean their hair. But, due to ignorance avoid using conditioner. The shampoo has some chemicals that assist in taking dirt and grime away, at the same time it unbalances the pH of our hair, so to keep the pH of our hair balanced, we should apply conditioner on hair after washing.

8. Facial: We have no problem in doing oil massage to increase the blood circulation. But, when it comes to facials, you will hear this comment quite often that they don't have time and money to waste on these stupid things. Facial is nothing but the face massage that proceeds with face scrub and face mask. Facials helps to increase the blood circulation and keeps the skin smooth and tight.
For deep cleaning and massage purposes, we do employ some machines during facial procedure like Galvanic Machine, Ultrasonic machine etc.

9. Manicure and pedicure: These are also closely related to the personal hygiene and treat to ourselves. Manicures and pedicures are the names of the procedures that include cutting and filing the nails, removing the cuticles or dead skin, scrubbing, massaging and moisturizing the hands and foot, following by the nail color and accessories in case of females.

10. Face Serum: Their molecule size is so small that they can easily penetrate into the skin. There are two types of serums: water-based and oil based. Water-based serums go under the cream, while oil-based serums go above the cream. 

So caring about your body is about loving you. A visit to the beauty salon or mail parlor every now and then is not all about  wastage of time and money. It is an effort we put to keep our machinery, which is our body in this case, running smoothly and beautifully. It should not always be mistaken with indulgence.

Shoes: A Gentleman's Guide

Have you ever wondered about the types of shoes? I have not until I faced some discomfort in my foot. I have been going to gym and using the only which so ever was available to me at home. I did not know or bothered to buy something specific to the type of activity doing at the gym. But, I always wondered why do people carry all these different sorts of shoes along with them in the gym. The only thing mattered to me before buying the shoes was the look, and feel and of course the price. I never thought more from any other angle. And, when I recently encountered my foot discomfort and thought of little exploring the issue, then I realized how big and glorious is the foot industry.

And, there is a lot you can tell about a person by what they choose to wear on their feet.

So, for your knowledge, there are a variety of shoes for different tasks, occasions and seasons.

Now, the most common sports shoes or athletic shoes are:
1. Running shoes(have an alignment to push you in forwarding direction, usually with a cushion to support the knees)
2. Walking shoes(emphasize more on stability, suspension absorber at the bottom)
3. Training or cross-training shoes, joggers or sneakers(flat shoes)
4. Driving shoes or mocs or moccasin

The material of shoes:
1. Fabric: Linen, canvas
2. Leather: suede with napped look, deerskin, lamb, pig, alligator or crocodile
3. Rubber
4. Plastic
5. Wood

Seasonal Shoes:
1. Rain shoes
2. Winter boots or cold weather boots
3.Snow boots: water-resistant or waterproof
4. Snowshoes: used for snowshoeing
5. Ski boots
6. Hiking boots

Formal  shoes
     1. Dress Shoes :
            i. Oxford: close lacing: Named after the Oxford city of England. The one end of the lace flaps is sewen together. Very formal and preferred for black and white tie events.
            ii. Durby: open lacing: Both ends of the lace straps can be open wide apart. Preferred by people with bigger feet. They are less formal than Oxfords.
           iii. Blucher: open lacing
           iv. Brogue( shoes having perforations)
2. Chelsea Boots
3. Monk strap shoes and boots
4. Pointed Toe shoes

Informal shoes:
1. Slip-on
       i. Loafers
      ii. Boat or deck Shoes: anti slipary
      iii. Espadrilles

All about sarees

This is a fact that beauty is always directly associated with females. Aesthetics is an important aspect of being a female. I do not want to stereotype anything, I believe a good looking person(male or female) always appeals more. So, today I want you to know what an Indian girl should know about in this direction.
Every region of India has different ethnic clothes. Like in coastal areas of India, saree is more common wear for women.
Saree is a seamless dress and it is believed that it does justice to the curvy features of women and makes them look more elegant. Saree is one of the traditional dress from India or better say south Asia. It comes in different varieties and price ranges.

Types of sarees:

Based on Fabric: The most common types of saree materials are:

1. Silk: comes from Silkworm: feeds on mulberry leaves
2. Cotton: from cotton balls on the cotton plants
3. Lenin: from the flax seeds plant
4. Blended

 Based on Region:

1. Pattu sarees
2. Baluchari: West Bengal (Murshidabad, Bishnupur). Mythological characters
3. Bomkai, Sambalpuri, Kataki: Orissa

Print on Sarees:

1. check
2. flowers: Jamdani Dhakai
3. broad border sarees
4. booti saree

Mysore silk sarees: First time in India the king of Mysore ordered 12 power looms from Switzerland to make the silk sarees. So Mysore silk sarees are always power-loomed. 

Accessories:

1. check shawls
2. Body shaper for the saree

Every region of India is popular for different types of sarees.

Sarees are known by the region where they are weaved or the fabric material from which they are made from is sourced. For example, Banarasi and Kanjivaram silk sarees are very famous all over the world, these sarees are weaved in the Banaras, Uttar Pradesh, and Kanjivaram, Tamilnadu respectively. These are usually handloom sarees and take months to weave them. Therefore, these sarees are very expensive. And these sarees are made of pure material which is soft and can not be weaved on power-loomed. Because for power loom we need hard yarn like polyester. Secondly, handloom sarees are very durable and last for generations because of durable weaving but power-loom or machine-made sarees are not that durable in case of intricate designs of sarees like Dhakai Jamdani.
Muga silk sarees are a specialty of the Assam state of India. Mekhla Chadar is the type of saree popular in the Assam state of India.
Dhakai or Jamdani sarees: It is the weave famous from the Dhaka region of Bangladesh. And these sarees have jamdani or floral patterns on the saree. Jamdani is primarily a weave in cotton fabric. Again, these sarees are hand-loomed and very expensive.
Baluchari sarees are famous from the Baluchari village in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state of India. And, these sarees have intricate designs of mythological figures or stories on the pallu or loose portion of the saree.
Tussar silk is a variety of silk. There are broadly two types of silk: wild and cultivated. Tussar silk is wild silk.

There are other light-weight sarees of silk known as butter silk saree which are as smooth as butter.
 Then comes tant sarees, which are basically cotton sarees and very popular in the Eastern part of India e.g. West Bengal, Orissa.


Printed sarees: as the name suggests are printed instead of doing any zari or thread or gota work.

• Ikkat: These sarees use the resist-dyeing technique of yarn dyeing and famous for its blurriness texture.
• Tie and dye sarees are the ones that use the tie and dye technique for dyeing the sarees.
• Batik: is another resist-dyeing technique of fabric dyeing using wax.

The weave of the saree:
How a saree is weaved matters a lot because it totally changes the texture and feel of the saree.
For example, Kota Doria is a famous saree from the Kota region of Rajasthan and famous for the chequered weave patterns.
Chiffon saree
Net saree
Velvet saree
Organza saree


Type of work on the saree:
Then comes the types of work done on the saree like zari saree. A zari saree is the one with zari embroidery done on the saree. We have buti (flower bud design) work, stonework on the saree.


Nowadays double-double sarees are very famous, where two halves of the saree are made of different colors or two different materials of different colors.

Kabari wala and Bartan Wali

I moved to Europe few years ago and whenever I visit India people usually ask how life is different in Europe than India. And, most importantly how do I keep myself busy there. Other than clean air and water, clean cities and less traffic, almost no pollution of any kind whether air or noise, there are also subtle differences that you start observing when you reflect upon them.

I have seen that the mail box (which is called a post box in India) is always full in Europe, as well as in Canada. You would wonder why is it. I don't know why but I can tell you what keeps the mail box always full unless you put a note on the mail box that you don't want any unsolicited mails. In Canada and Europe, you get the weekly flyers in your mail box as well as free newspapers. Yes, in developed countries like Canada, Western Europe, newspapers are free. There are few paid newspapers as well but usually the local newspapers are free and they drop those newspapers in your mail boxes. And, if you visit a bank,  mall, or hospital, there are so many information flyers, newsletters and magazines on different subjects, that are also free and you can pick a copy if you wist to read. I am a voracious reader and all these stuff keeps me busy and well-informed.

As all these stuff is free, and you dispose these recyclable paper material in the recycling bins. So, there is no concept of Kabari wala in developed countries. 

Waste management approaches in India and developed countries are totally different.  This is something that you will surely observe. And, the knowledge of what to dispose where also makes the ordinary citizens of  western countries more wiser than ordinary lay persons of India. I was totally surprised when I first heard about the 'Waste Police' in Switzerland. Switzerland enjoys the reputation of the heaven on the earth and this country is worth visiting. Rules about waste management in Switzerland are so strict and well executed that people really care to dispose their waste properly. There are different waste bind for different purposes, waste centers etc.

For old clothes and shoes, there are separate bins. You can dispose your old clothes and shoes in those bins if they are in good condition and can be reused by others. If those clothes or shoes are not in such good condition to be reused than they go into the land fill. But, in India the concept of Bartan wali is so popular, these ladies will come door to door in the afternoons and exchange new utensils for old clothes i.e. sarees, pant, shorts, shoes, etc.

Likewise, for plastic and metals in India, we have kabari wala. But in developed countries, they have separate waste bins for everything.

These bartan walis used to be kind of afternoon entertainment in my childhood when my mom will negotiate a big utensil in exchange of old clothes. Likewise, one Sunday of every month was reserved for Kabari wala to sell the old newspapers. 

These kabari wala were also in big demand in the months of March or say early spring, when the school results are declared and students are excited to go back to the school and will study in new class. So, all the books and copies of previous year will be sold to the Kabari wala.

But, in developed countries you do not find this fun. And, these are the occasions when you get the chance to interact with people. And interaction with real people is very important, it keeps you emotionally healthy. But in this technology driven world, in-person interaction is diminishing though the speed is slow but steady.