A kurta (or sometimes kurti, for women) is a traditional piece of clothing worn in Afghanistan, northern India, and Pakistan. It is a loose shirt falling either just above or somewhere below the knees of the wearer, and is worn by both men and women. It can be worn with either loose salwar pants, or with churidar pants, a tight-fitting variant of the salwar. Kurta are typically worn in more formal occasions, especially in the case of men, who in South Asia have largely moved to Western clothes as everyday wear. Men and women wearing suits, an example of one of the many modern forms of clothing (from the 1937 Chicago Woolen Mills catalog) Clothing is defined, in its broadest sense, as coverings for the torso and limbs as well as coverings for the hands (gloves), feet (socks, shoes, sandals, boots... The Indo-Gangetic Plain is a rich, fertile and ancient land encompassing most of northern and eastern India, the most populous parts of Pakistan, and virtually all of Bangladesh. ... Salwar-kameez, from Max Tilkes Oriental Costume, 1922 Salwar-kameez is the traditional dress worn by various peoples of South Asia. ... 19th century Indian women wearing transparent skirts over churidar pants. ... This article is about the geopolitical region in Asia. ...

Western women often wear inexpensive imported kurtas as blouses, usually over jeans. These kurtas are typically much shorter than the traditional garments and made with a lighter materials, like those used in sewing kameez. Imported kurtas were fashionable in the 1960s and 1970s, as an element of hippie fashion, fell from favor briefly, and are now again fashionable. South Asian women may also wear this Western adaptation of South Asian fashion. A blouse A blouse most commonly refers to a womans shirt, although the term is also used for some mens military uniform shirts. ... Blue Jeans Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics including corduroy. ... Salwar-kameez, from Max Tilkes Oriental Costume, 1922 Salwar-kameez is the traditional dress worn by various peoples of South Asia. ... Singer at contemporary Russian Rainbow gathering Hippie, usually spelled hippy in the United Kingdom, refers to a subgroup of the 1960s and early 1970s counterculture that began in the United States, becoming an established social group by 1965 before declining during the mid-1970s. ...

Formal kurtas are usually custom-made by South Asian tailors, who work with the fabric their customers bring them. South Asians overseas, and Westerners, can buy them at South Asian clothing stores or order them from web retailers.

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (556x768, 130 KB) Vijay Anand shopping for kurta payjama in Bangalore, India, Picture taken by Brian Glassman I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU...