Before any of you mutiny-lovin’ right-coasters befoul the L.A. Meetup thread under Abhi’s last post with questions about D.C. events, I thought I’d create a separate and more relevant space for my fellow chocolatiers. If, however, you are befouling the L.A. meetup thread by saying something less than sweet about my least favorite city, foul away with my Northern California-bred blessings. 😉 I keed, I keed.
Anyway, Channukah is almost here and that obviously means it’s time to wear desi clothes to a meetup!
Iron that kanjeevaram, dig up your favorite lengha and find that sherwani your cousin made you buy for his wedding, which you didnÂ’t think youÂ’d get to use again. This is the MutinyÂ’s first holiday party and I want you to glitter as much as the fantastic setting.
Can you picture it? Sepia lovelies in silk, the chime of bangles as crystal flutes are raised and the food…my goodness, you should come, just to try the bhindi and the saag. At YoDad’s request, Msichana showed up to the last DC meetup looking luminous in a sari which fought the sunset for that night’s “Best use of Pinks and Purples”-award, so you may thank her for inspiring this request for your best dress. How down are you with looking brown? :)[linkery]
A month ago, I asked you to save December 16th on your cluttered social calendars and several of you kindly did so. Now I need a final head count so that I can either make reservations or find a different venue— I’m sad to report that I’m having some issues with the luscious, gorgeous Rasika. But, depending on how many of you RSVP, those issues might be moot so hop to it my little bunnies. I need a number and I need it soon!
What’s with sorority girls and formals? See, the way these things go, I’d have to call up all the girls to ask them what they’re going to wear so that I won’t be uncoordinated. And when I get there, I’d still stick out like sore thumb because I’m a strange child and I never get these things right… 🙂
I LOVE FORMALS!
This is a bit different, though…I won’t be wearing an evening gown to this event. 😉
Between Strangelove, Strangeways, Here we come and People are Strange (Echo and the Bunnymen version!), I’m a HUGE fan of strange. Come to Butthead. 🙂
Pick Me! Pick Me!
Me plus one. Might be more but two for sure!
Do the menfolk have to dress desi too?
Poop! I was looking forward to wearing a sari and introducing my lurker self to the DC mutineers. But I have to be in NYC Saturday. I hope y’all have fun.
I’m there and am bringing a friend who’s visiting from San Fran that weekend.
Are you still trying to get Rasika? I know someone who works there who might be able to help. Just let me know!
I’ve been told I look like the drag version of Nelly Furtado when I put on fancy clothes…
Being latina, and into shredded muscles, (did I mention the sleeve tattoo?) are just not going to lend well to wearing a sari are they? In my neck of the woods, formal wear for us latinas means lots of big hair 😉
It’s really too bad you can’t make the L.A. meet-up 🙂
I’ll definitely be there…
It’s really too bad you can’t make the L.A. meet-up 🙂
Man, I’m escared of LA. That meet-up sounds too sexy- I’d be paralyzed with anxiety 😉
Show some love to the South. How about a meetup in Big D (Dallas to all ya’ll Yankees), H Town (Houston), or Austin?
wait.. what.. uh?
and all the while i thought you were a macho camacho lookalike. this is too weird. sweet flaming eggplants!!
Sigh.
I guess I betta go wax my mustache…
Cannot make it, sadly — I’m committed to other holiday parties that I cannot skip.
i’m down to look brown (in hot pink). count me in!
Please know that I’m in DC in spirit, if not in the actual flesh. Someone have a dessert on my behalf.
…or a stoli razberi kamikaze? 😉
No WONDER there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth in the bunker! Hmmm!
ah… but it can not possibly beat the bhindi recipe shruti posted here. my tweak. oven bake the bhindi at 400 for 15 minutes in a cast iron pan before frying to get it really crispy and sautee onions separately. the results are bhairy_deliteful. i’m still vaiting on a saag recipe tho’. someone ask the folks at rasika and help this brother out.
yea i know. i’m a threadhog. i’m out for the afternoon now.
your hostess will not eat bhindi (or anything else with cooked onions) in it. to help you with your threadjack and all.
Is Indian formal wear a must?
What’s going on?? Every Podunk li’l city is getting a meetup this week but not Manhattan?? Outrageous! Where are you, my fellow Manhattanites? Alright, fine, the rest of you new yorkers and even you Jersey folks in Edison can be included too (barely). Somebody set something up!
I demand satisfaction! Glove Slap
P.S. If it’s gonna’ be a formal, I’m coming in a formal veshti, that’s right, in full Upanayanam regalia, with a tree-branch staff holding a tuft of deerskin. Bare chested to boot. And I’m going to get tasered several times by NYPD as I refuse to get my half-naked sadhu self off the ground, so be forewarned about making any manhattan meetup a formal.
Thus always to tyrants,
you’re kind of annoying
Sahej,
I love you too dearest.
Thus always,
awwww. mwah.
our charming hostess can be appeased by substituting onions for … hmm.. how does she feel about mushrooms… hmm sauteed shiitake mushrooms flash boiled enoki should go very vell.
but seriously, where’s the love, kids. the hostess with the mostes’ put her heart out and it’s a limp aye so far.
is it the formal desi gear thing? i dont know about y’all, but the only desi cladding i have is my dermis and my accented hingrezi – and that’s vaht i’d bring to the table, clad in a clean y front chaddi sans rips – if i were in dc.
though.. reminds me of the one time in uni when there was this desi function – and my neighbor, a bhadralok straight from kolkotta decided to dress up as in desh … well there were flurries, and then there was rain. the guy got soaked and gave the neighbors quite an eyeful. poor fellow. Hi Shaiket. it’s me!
Boys are less likely to have such than girls. But boys (well, straight boys), think of this – the women will be looking even more scrumptious than ever, so isn’t that a motivation to rustle up some garment from one of your mates?
will definitely try and be there and will most likely be bringing a friend too
i can’t make it b/c i’m in the midst of finals and of course… not in DC but
i thought i’d share my new holiday with you: Hanuwali
my boyfriend is Jewish so this year we’re setting off fireworks and playing with sparklers on the first night of Hanukkah to celebrate both of our religions. We also plan on lighting candles and eating both samosas and latkas.
😛
have a great one everyone!
Ennis,
It seems North Indian men’s formal attire can passably function in the U.S., but what about South Indian men’s formal attire such as dhotis? There aren’t too many Scotsmen wandering about in kilts in D.C. either.
I thought I might be able to make it but Silver Gloves last fight is at 9pm. Coach has to be there for the shorties.
As everybody knows, I love any excuse to wear a dress 😉
Dude we just had one a few weeks ago. Where were you?
I have a friend who just moved here from Cali and regularly wore dhoties during the summer including to work. He is an architect and gay but that’s so besides the point. Boy had balls and he was adorable. When he had a ganesh puja at his house during ganesh chaturthi he had 45 people show up for the puja and at least 30 of them were non Indians. People really appreciate it and not in the “exotic” kind of way. If you do it, they will come 🙂
Dressing down or dressing weird is the Cali code. In my high school, many people would show up to class in pyjamas half the time. And now in college, if the weather is nice, you can expect most people to show up to class in various degrees of undress – some guys shirtless and barefoot, some girls in bikini tops, surfboard or skateboard under one arm, notebook under the other. Yup, that’s the Cali coast 🙂
Glad it worked out well for you 🙂
Ha- That’s not Cali- that’s Santa Barbara! I can’t imagine kids coming to UCLA or USC dressed to that extent of undress. I mean I would take my Sector 9 skateboard to class, but dressed in hipster chic, not barefoot in a bikini top. slight nuance. 😉
I said Cali coast, not Westwood or Bloods territory, silly – although, I know you can easily show up to class at UCLA and USC in pyjamas (I used to, when I took summer school there).
Hmmm. The following are comments from a month ago, when I originally announced that desi formal was the preferred dress code. I’m not including the feedback I got offline, which was rather positive:
Look- it’s not that big of a deal if any of you are THAT uncomfortable with wearing brown clothes. I will be in a sari; I will be equally thrilled to hug any and all of you, no matter what you’re wearing. It is an evening event (vs. our usual afternoon/coffee shop joints) so I hope people look nice…if the men of DC want to wear vestern apparel, that’s fine. The point of this is to let girls get dressed up in their saris and go out to something that isn’t boring or religious. 😉 Anyone else interested/questioning?
She’s terrified of them. 😉
No, seriously, I find them slimy, suspect and far too meat-like (portobellos especially). Also, hairy_d, you are the sveet and I am lowing you right now. What a kind comment. 🙂
Anna, Since you opened up the sari conversation, I have a question. (this is sort of off-topic since I live nowhere near DC but I someday hope to have an occassion to wear my one sari which is an absolutely GORGEOUS purple color and the blouse is cream and silver) Um, I don’t know how to tie it so that it will stay on and look nice. The last time I wore my sari, someone else tied it up for me. Do you have a foolproof method?
Janeofalltrades,
Darn! Keep me appraised of these things! A few weeks ago, eh… just about time for another, wouldn’t you say? We can’t let little tinsel towns like D.C. one-up us.
Besides the point? I don’t know. There was this guy at my high school who always wore a purple skirt (not a mini-skirt, a decent, no-frills, long skirt). He was gay and it was at a private boarding school, and that does help. The circumstances change everything. Were I in S.F., I could conceivably wear a Halloween outfit to the Castro valley each and every day and not gather any stares. I’m surprised your friend was able to move from Cali to here without any issues. NY seems the place where I’d feel very, very, very unsafe wandering about in a veshti. The only way I could possibly feel more unsafe would be to wander about in Harlem with a swastika T-shirt until I eventually have to scream as I’m beaten to a bloody pulp, “No, no, it’s a Hindu symbol! It’s peaceful!” Of course, in the privacy of my home, I have a prayer room in which I wear a veshti and have swastikas among other symbols. (Although, the plumber started looking at my funny when he saw the swastika)
Yay! I am not going to dolled up by myself! Now to make El Capitan dress the brown threads too..
Awwww, cho chweet! 🙂 You know what y’all should do? All the ladies should just go to one person’s house and get dressed there. If that doesn’t work out, just experiment with different tying styles at home. Gujrati style is a lot easier to keep in place than then modern Tagore style. Unless you feel yourself beholden to a particular regional style, I say go for the style that flatters your figure. If you have a nice tummy, bring the pallu over the shoulder from the back and leave it draped on one side. If you’ve got a nice arch in your back, bring the pallu over the shoulder from the front, so that your back is exposed.
Select the length of your pallu before wrapping it around you, and keep it separate. Also put your shoes on BEFORE the sari, otherwise it will throw off the measurements. The bottom hem of your sari should be evenly parallel with the floor, and no more than an inch off of the ground. And then walk, walk, walk, walk until you’re able to carry yourself upright without shuffling or fumbling. Wearing a sari requires a different, more slow and elegant stride than one would normally have.
Ok, that was a sloppy explanation. I’m sure someone else can do a better job of it. If not, I’m sure there are good directions you can find online. Good luck!
Also, the hardest part- for pleats, make sure your sari is ironed, or somehow smoothed out before you put it on, otherwise the creases will mess up your pleats. Just go slow, get 5 or 6 of them all the same length. Use your middle and index fingers to measure and fold. Always tuck in the pleats a little deeper than the rest of your sari. If you’re having a hard time keeping them pleated after you tuck them in, you can use a hair straightening iron (on very low temperature) to give a more defined look.
sic semper tyrannis, why are you perpetually choleric?
This site has cool directions on tying a sari…have fun semi desi Masala!
I have to say that a woman who can wear a sari with grace is so freaking hot. Hai, I’m going to faint.
pax et bonum,
How, good heavens, do you see me as anything other than the peacefully good-natured soul that I am?
No von Mises,
A sari is truly one of the last remnants of an ancient era of beauty. I’m quite glad that it survives. I’m saddened that the ornamental arm-piece worn high above the elbow has fallen out of fashion. What is the name for it? It’s often brass and helps maintain the upper portion of the arm in a flattering shape. Another iconic style lost from that era is the heavy eye-makeup worn by men up until the seventeenth century.
🙂 … and that’s why boys… we like the girls.
so guys… there’s going to be a bunch of luminous-eyed beauties at the shindig… and they’re going to be vaiting for YOU!!! … just show up … not that i’m saying it’s a biggie, but the dress ‘code’ matters naught as long as you dont show up in a ron jon surfing tee … besides, lions wear beige.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
DAMMIT! I AM IN NORTH CAROLINA THIS WEEKEND!
AAAAAAAAARRRRGH!
WHY GOD WHY?