🇵🇰 The sarees of Pakistan
12 sarees from Pakistan, best known first, across 17 centres and states.
The article treats Pakistan's dress as many regional traditions sharing one base: the shalwar kameez, loose trousers with a tunic, worn by men and women across the provinces. Hand embroidery, block print, mirrorwork and tie-dye carry the local character, on cotton, silk, chiffon and satin. The saree is not described here; the dupatta, chadar and ajrak are the wrapped cloths that fill its place.
- Shalwar kameez is worn by men and women in every province of Pakistan.
- Ajrak is a printed shawl and bandhani is tie-dye cloth, both worn in Sindh.
- The Balochi Duch from Makran is fully hand embroidered and can take months per suit.
- Grooms in parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wear plain white.
- Lahore and Karachi each host their own fashion week.
Sarees in Pakistan
Pakistan's clothing grows out of many regions and ethnic groups, and this article reads it province by province rather than as one national style. What holds it together is the shalwar kameez, a pair of loose trousers and a shirt, worn by men and women everywhere but cut differently from place to place. Weather shapes the cloth: thick fabric and very wide trousers in the hot, dry Balochistan plains, warm pashmina wraps in the northern mountains. Ornament matters as much as cut. Embroidery, mirrorwork, and printed or tie-dyed cloth give each area its own look, and one garment name can mean another shape a few hundred miles away. No saree appears in this material.
Weaves and fabrics
Fibres are named, but looms and weave structures are not described. Cotton comes up most often, as the plain cloth of everyday shalwar kameez, turbans and the white burqa. Silk, chiffon, satin and a fabric called soossi are given for dressier Sindhi trousers and skirts. Wool arrives through shawls: pashmina and other warm wraps worn in the northern regions during winter. Balochistan's thick cloth is chosen for weight, to stand against dry desert winds. Since no weaving technique, draft or loom part is set out, nothing can be said here about how these cloths are made.
How it is worn
There is no saree in this article, so nothing here describes one. The wrapped cloths it does list are the dupatta, a long scarf; the chadar or shawl; and the ajrak, a printed shawl carried on the shoulder. Women wear the dupatta over the neck, down one shoulder or wound at the waist, and draw it over the head at a mosque or dargah. Men in Sindh wind a patko turban and lay an ajrak or lungee across the shoulders. Rural men across the country wear dhoti, lungi or tehmat, wraps tied at the waist, while turbans, pakols and caps cover the head in the north.
Dyeing, printing and embroidery
Dyeing, printing and embroidery do most of the decorative work described. Ajrak is a printed cloth and bandhani is tie-dye, both named in Sindhi dress. Sindhi tunics and vests carry local embroidery and mirrorwork, the small shisha mirrors stitched into the cloth. Kamdani and gota decorate dupattas, and Punjabi phulkari is named among women's dress. In Balochistan the Shisha work is heavy, and the Balochi Duch suit from Makran is entirely hand embroidered, a piece that takes months to finish. No dye recipes, tools or stitch-by-stitch detail are given.
Weaving centres
The article ties cloth to places through the names of garments rather than through weaving towns. Punjab contributes the Multani, Pothohari and Bahawalpuri shalwar, the Patiala shalwar and the laacha. Sindh gives its own salwar, the cholo and the patko turban. Makran District in Balochistan is named for the embroidered Balochi Duch. Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi appear as the cities where wedding dress follows urban fashion, and Lahore and Karachi are where the country's fashion weeks are held. No town is credited with a particular weave.
Weddings, festivals and daily wear
Dress shifts with the event. Eid brings heavier embroidery on the shalwar kameez than everyday wear. Weddings run through several ceremonies with different clothes for each: at the mendhi a man may wear an embroidered kameez in bright colours, and the bride in Punjab often wears yellow or orange with a yellow dupatta and paranda. Brides generally choose a lehenga, anarkali, sharara or gharara, all embroidered. Grooms wear sherwani with kurta and khussa, though in parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plain white is customary. Older dresses such as the farshi pajama come out only now and then.
The weavers and their communities
The article does not name weaving communities, so this page cannot credit them. What it does say is that much of the work is done by hand. The Balochi Duch is hand embroidered throughout, which is why a single suit can take months. Sindhi embroidery and mirrorwork, Punjabi phulkari, and the kamdani and gota on dupattas are all worked by hand as well. It also notes that rural women who work in the fields do not wear the burqa, which places purdah dress with town and elite life rather than with farming households.
The saree today
Fashion now presents these clothes to a wider audience. The article describes an industry that carries Pakistani dress abroad while letting international trends in, with television, film and the internet doing most of the promotion. Two design councils organise the shows: one in Lahore runs Fashion Week, one in Karachi runs its own events. The country's first fashion week was held in November 2009, and a Britain-trained lawyer who led the Karachi body set it going. Several large clothing companies and named designers are listed among the notable labels.
The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Pakistani clothing", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. EveryPallu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
🇮🇳 India and 4 moreZardoziज़रदोज़ी
Heavy gold and silver metal embroidery on silk, satin or velvet, from Iran to IndiaSilk · Embroidery · Zari work
🇵🇰 PakistanSindhi embroideryسنڌي ٿرت
Needlework and mirror embroidery crafted across the desert communities of SindhEmbroidery · Mirror work
🇮🇳 India and 3 moreDupattaदुपट्टा, دوپٹہ
A versatile long scarf and veil draped with traditional ensembles across South AsiaSilk · Brocade · Tie-dye
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreKhes
A thick hand-woven cotton blanket cloth from Punjab, checked and worn as a winter wrap.Cotton · Checks and stripes · Zari work
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sindhi embroidery: Nasreen wafai, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Zardozi: Zarood, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dupatta: Kinshuk Sunil, CC BY 2.0, source
- Khes: RAJIVVASUDEV, CC BY-SA 4.0, source