The Hunt for an Anarkali, or Indian Wedding Wear Would Make a Vegas Showgirl Proud

When my parents come to visit in a few weeks we will be going to an Indian wedding of the son some family friends. Naturally, I'm delighted as I've been wanting to go to an Indian wedding for pretty much the entirety of my life and have look upon this as the perfect opportunity to purchase some awesome Indian wedding wear. I already own a sari, but I also wanted to purchase an anarkali, which is basically an long elegant Indian dress worn over leggings. A friend of mine from work was also wedding-wear shopping, so last weekend we embarked on an exciting Hunt for an Anarkali.

Now, it's pretty clear that Indian women's fashion wholeheartedly embraces bling and brightness, but honestly, I was NOT prepared for the cornucopia of sequins and rhinestones that confronted me in EVERY shop on EVERY dress. Seriously, y'all--anarkalis look like what would happen if a Vegas showgirl and Dolly Parten had a lovechild who went on to star in the beauty pageants.  What I'm saying is--India must single handled keep the glitter and glitz industry in business.

In every store that we went into I told the sales girls, "I'm looking for something very simple, no rhinestones or sequins" and every time they would then proceed to pull out dresses covered in rhinestones and sequins for my approval. I was annoyed at first until I realized that, actually, what they were showing me were the simplest anarkalis they had; there were literally no anarkalis not blinged out.

And it's not just the bling, y'all. The colors of these things are blinding--bright oranges and turquoise and neon green and EVERY color of pink (but especially hot pink). Basically, if it looks like a color your 5 year old might want to dress her Malibu Barbie in, you'd find it there.

Now, I bet you're thinking, Wow, so bright and so many rhinestones--I bet these anarkalis are pretty expensive, huh? And you know what? For once, in India, you'd be right. Anarkalis are effing pricey. I guess I was expecting them to be on the cheap side (like everything else in India) but what I learned is that apparently wedding-wear (even for guests) is crazy expensive in India. (Not surprising, I guess--it's not uncommon here for families to go significantly in debt to pay for a daughter's wedding and families save up for years to pay for these three-day-long lavish events.)

Point is, the cheapest decent anarkali I could find cost about USD$200, and the ones I liked were significantly more than that. So, much as I did actually enjoy the shopping and trying on of the anarkalis--I just couldn't bring myself to drop that much dough on an outfit I could only wear to an Indian wedding or when performing at the Ice Capades.

So, instead I'll try to borrow a second sari from a friend. Plus, now that I've finally figured out how to tie a sari on--no mean feat--I need excuses to practice my new-found skill!