Thursday, March 6

Lambani Eye Candy

Take a look and tell me you don't feel overwhelmed. I love this, every square inch of the Lambani woman's outfit is embellished and personalised. Talk about making a statement.

The Lambani woman's outfit consists of a skirt or phetiya made up of five distinct bands and secured at the waist with a drawstring tie which hangs down embellished with cowrie shells and tassels , a backless blouse or kaachadi with the characteristic square mirrors embroidered on the front and sleeves and the veil called the chaatiya or ghungato which is a length of commercially printed or woven fabric embellished with a wide band of mirror work and coins.


I got caught up with photographing the embroidery so I don't have enough pictures of the jewellery which is an extremely important part of the whole look. Most of their jewellery is silver except for the nose ring which is gold.
The arm band in the picture above is made up of 25 paise coins and bunches of silver little bells called ghungara and the tassels to tie the armband on, have ghungaroos, cowrie shells and tassels called phunda made of acrylic wool.Silver anklets, 3 anklets no less.
Bangles from elbow to wrist, siver hair clips adorn a distinctive hairstyle. The older women have beautiful tatoos. I must photograph them too.


Applique, tassels of varying sizes made of brightly coloured acrylic wool, square and round mirrors, bells or ghungara, metal buttons, coins and cowrie shells all go to embellish the lambani outfit.
I'm not finished there will be a part two.

14 comments:

pRiyA said...

this is really amazing. have never seen the intricacies of their clothes and jewellery this close. your photographs too opened out this time, much to my delight.
most beautiful of all i think, are the faces of these women.

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Finally I figured out why the photographs were not enlarging when you clicked on them. Glad i figured it out especially for this post, the details are amazing I agree.The weather beaten faces too speak volumes.

Penny said...

What wonderful photos and embroidery and jewelry. thank you for showing it.

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Your welcome Penny, I'm on an embroidery overdose surrounded with this embroidery until the 12th of March and I'm not complaining.

allie aller said...

This is a rare treat...I can't thank you enough for bringing these women and their incredible needlework to us.
GLORIOUS!!!!!

Maya Sara Matthew said...

I'm delighted that you found Lambani embroidery a rare treat Allison.

Grangry said...

Wow! Thank you for those close-up shots!

Maya Sara Matthew said...

You are welcome Kay Susan

Lorenza said...

Just amazing, thank you for these beautiful photos!

Maya Sara Matthew said...

Glad you liked the eye candy Lorenza, thanks for coming by and leaving a comment

Guzzisue said...

wow, wow and double wow!! bright and shiny :) it is such a shame that we don't have a national or regional dress or style as it must give a real feeling of unity and sense of belonging

Unknown said...

Thank goodness for the colors

CRAFTMARK, Hand-made in India said...

I loved discovering your blog - I recently visited Sandur in Karnataka, and saw the Lambani women in action - they are amazing artists, and their work is beautiful. I have posted some photos on our blog - www.craftmark.blogspot.com that you might like to check out, and on our facebook Craftmark - Handmade in India page.

Kamal Dharamsot said...

It is amazing presentation of Lambani Art Work. Thanks for this presentation. Please visit our site banjaratimes.com

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