From the time of window shopping in the malls to the time today where urgent things are ordered even online, we have travelled long. It was difficult and it still is. For a person like me who believe in buying clothes after complete research and scroll, online shopping is difficult to adopt. But slowly I am adapting and with options like cash on delivery available, it has helped me a lot. So, as the festive season is coming, I would like to share my opinion after a lot of research on Indian ethnic wear.I have filtered my content in various categories.
Kurta Set/Kurtas/Saree
If you want a suit which is festive plus it should be comfortable you can choose between a kurta set or a kurta. There are many advantages which come along. These are made of general sizes so if there are changes in your size then there is no headache of fitting it again just like tops. Also, our generation feel less comfortable in properly fitted clothes.
When I left for USA two years back, Myntra was quite popular for Indian ethnic wear. But now due to Instagram there are many other popular shopping stores available online. I heard of Mirraw from my family and I found their stuff good. But they mostly have unstitched material.According to me, getting it stitched from a tailor is headache and risky in the time of corona.If you are thinking of buying from Mirraw, their stuff is really good. We have ordered nearly 5 suits and all of them are of good quality and reasonable prices. Then I found many websites on google but was not sure of quality. So, I created an Instagram poll to suggest online ethnic wear and found a lot of suggestions.
Trustworthy and Stitched
After researching about all the suggestions from Instagram and my own crawl, what I analyzed was Nykaa Fashion, Myntra, tata cliq were all same types of platforms.There are lots of good brands with range of prices. The advantage is you get stitched material available in various sizes just like western clothes. Brands like Aachho, laglitsbychhavi, baksuaa, labelkanupriya are quite popular among these. All these brands run separately as well where there is a lot more variety. The thing about buying from big brands is the trust in quality. But what if you are desiring something unique or Instagrammable and that too at an affordable price, then there are a lot of small businesses with good talent. These target different kind of audiences.
Unique and Stitched
I found in “gulabo Jaipur” something unique. I was in immediate love with their Anarkali designs. If you are looking for a wedding or festive outfit, you can find many of them on their own website. But the range of those beautiful pieces is above 10000 Rs. I have not ordered from them because this time I was not looking for outfits with higher price range
There is a website that goes by the name “Kalkifashion” ,they have amazing festive products in the above 5000Rs range .I loved their sarees,suits etc. Also there is a festive sale going on where you can get good discounts as well.
I also liked “rust orange” which was suggested by blogger ‘thatbohogirl’ from Instagram.I found casual Indian ethnic wear pretty good in affordable prices, for festive I would recommend checking their sharara and gharara sets except they are very few. I got one similar suggestion of a store “jaipuriadaah” where there are more casual indian ethnic wear than festive in handblock kota doria fabric.
Good plus affordable not stitched
There is another online store named “Kreeva.com” where not only the stuff was good but also available at affordable prices. So, I ordered a semi-stitched suit from them. The thing that I find annoying was that I got a lehenga instead. You will be thinking that I should be happy, but I was not. Because my own wedding lehenga was somewhere in my mind lying in the closet for months and now there was another one. I like to buy things which can be utilized in multiple ways. There is a popular quote “If we stop buying crap, they will stop making crap”. But it happens, no doubt their quality is nice. Lehenga has beautiful work and looked like an expensive one.
There is an Instagram account by the name “stylish drapes”. They sell products only through Instagram and you have to whatsapp them for the details if you like their product. Their products are also affordable but have not ordered from them.
Brand Outlets with good quality
I know it is not safe but still you can manage with the masks to buy from some of the popular outlets easily found in malls. Biba, Aurelia, Global Desi, W for Woman, Meena Bazaar are all good quality ethnic stores available online as well. I bought one kurta and palazzo from Biba in pastel green and its quality is too good, but I bought it during 50%off sale. Still I prefer buying ethnic wear from famous street shops in various cities.
Local Street Shops
I know if you are a fan of street shopping than you will be missing this during this pandemic. But slowly a lot of shops are opening now with precautions being taken. There is no comparison of buying ethic wear from this option with other options mentioned above as you can manually check the quality.You can find your own price range.There is no headache of returning the product if not liked.
Recently I travelled to phagwara, Punjab near to my home for some emergency shopping. We wore masks all the time but there was huge rush There is a famous shop named “ashudihatti” where there are wholesale clothes available. For those who are unaware about this term, wholesale shops are those which supply things in large quantity at a lower rate than the market rate. There are a lot of them in Chandni Chowk, Delhi also. I bought two unstitched suits one in blueish grey and other one in mauve shade each of 3500Rs.The only reason behind people avoiding going to street markets is the time consumed and pain after walking .
If you live near Ambala Haryana,there are popular wholesale shops by the name “Pooja Sarees” and “Rajan Sarees”.They have now build a huge wholesale complex in Ambala City.
I also liked the Bapu Bazaar of Jaipur for street shopping ,the kurta set with the dupatta shown in the picture is bought at 1500 Rs from the market.
