Walking down the catwalk

When I travel, I usually bring my grubbiest, plainest, ugliest clothing so that if I lose it, tear it, or just run out of room in my luggage, I won't be heartbroken. However, this always results in pictures of me in front of beautiful scenery wearing the grubbiest, plainest, and ugliest clothing in my closet. However, that has changed with India, where I have to buy all new clothing to wear because it's still a very conservative community, especially in Vellore (which is large enough to be crowded and noisy and polluted, but small enough to feel like I am tucked away from civilization).

So, instead of wearing the grubbiest, plainest, and ugliest clothing I own, I'm wearing the largest, plainest, and cheapest clothing I have ever owned. Women here wear these large tunics, sometimes going down to my knees, and baggy pants with these annoying drawstrings that, if held up against my body, I look like Jared of the Subway commercials holding up his pre-going-to-fast-food-for-every-meal diet. I promise to post up pictures of my wearing the outfits and holding up the pants. But it's seriously quite an outfit and is supposed to hide every curve that a woman has. Which I find ironic because a sari is pretty revealing given that the midriff is bare and it's held together with a few safety pins.

To add to the beautiful fashions I have been wearing on the street, I can wear them in the operating room! In the community hospital, I can wear street clothes into the operating room (which is very questionable, considering how dirty my clothes can get with sweat, dirt, and who knows what else by the afternoon). In the teaching hospital, I can wear scrubs that are made like the large tunics. You could easily fit two of me into these tunics. They're seriously one size fits all, even if it means that the woman wearing the outfit is completely outsized by her clothing. Not to mention they're not very suitable for the OR because it's very hard to maneuver around sterile trays when you are wearing a tent.

So, that's my bit on fashion here. I can't wait to wear a sundress again. Or a tank top outside of my room. Ah, the little things in life.