Moved my tumblr on vintage saree blouses to wordpress. The editing of individual entries is in progress and will take some time.
In the meantime I will duplicate new posts here and the ongoing tumblr is here: http://vintagesareeblouse.tumblr.com/archive
And as with tumblr, a first post on ML Vasanthakumari, the singer in a cute patterned blouse that contrasts with her striped cotton sari.
Update: Here is the Shanta Hublikar song. The blouse seems a little fancy with bow ties on the sleeves. In fact a number of blouses that Ms Hublikar wears in this movie are like 1920s/1930s dresses with the bottom part swan off. And the sari positioned to stay on the head , so common at the time.
And there are more Shanghai girls on the walls:)
And the caps. That’s Maina (Shanta Hublikar) singing in the style of/wearing a cap that reflects the different regions that her customers come from. The song itself is a parody of the kind of studio movies prevalent at the time and Ms Hublikar pretty much rocks, I have a deep girl crush on her. I love the way she is completely at ease while performing, that the performance itself is both casual and enticing and in fact has a sense of joy. And that its completely unlike the “kotha” scenes Hindi movies often subject us to.
The pic is from Neepa Majumdar’s “Wanted Cultured Ladies Only Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s-1950s” which discusses the many ways Manoos/Aadmi was an intelligent, ground breaking film (there is the unhappy end but perhaps that is an outcome of the time). And it also has the cutest song where Shanta Hublikar and Shahu Modak perform a romantic song in a studio lot. Its very funny and for some reason something in it seemed to suggest French New Wave to me (because even though – or perhaps because – the characters are policewoman/prostitute, it has the spirit of fun that often attends young love).
Keen spotting on the part of the blogger of the Shanghai girl in a qipao in India (see the photograph/calendar)! The actress is Shanta Hublikar playing a prostitute in Manoos – hence perhaps the simple sari and mismatched blouse.
Wonder what’s up with all the caps:)
The cheongsam doesn’t seem to have influenced fashion in India (perhaps those blouses with stand-up collars?). In Indian cinema they seem to be appear only when the part is Chinese. But here is Madhubala in a cheongsam.
In China, the process of modernisation resulted in women adopting the male “scholar gown”, which eventually became the fitted qipao/cheongsam.
Among the magazines aimed at the new woman of the time was Ling Long magazine – there are plenty of posts on it on tumblr. The first cover didn’t feature a cheongsam but a skirt and blouse. And something in the attire and the slash of gold/zari in this cover suggested India to me.
Ling Long magazine archive here.
For my posts on dress reform in Bengal, I have taken a good deal from Malavika Karlekar’s articles. In this picture taken in 1964, Ms Karlekar is on the right. And in the sarong/longyi and blouse is a girl called Aung San Suu Kyi.
The writer MK Binodini Devi (also Manipur royalty) with her sister MK Tombasina, both in the striped phanek. Puff sleeve blouses for young women are fairly common at the time (possibly late 1930s/early 1940s).
Her mother’s attire in 1922 while also a sarong+blouse looks a little different.
Another example of the attire on the Maharani of Tripura.
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A look at Manipur in North-East India.
The phanek is like the sarong and was traditionally worn without a blouse, above the breast. Eventually it was worn as a tubular skirt/sarong with the blouse and a piece of cloth draped across the upper part of the body, the changes resulting from Assamese and Bengali attire. Apart from the upper cloth, the attire is quite similar to that in many parts of South-East Asia.
Note: Meiteis are the majority ethnic group in Manipur.
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Also from the 1930s Miss Johra (likely she was a Miss Zohra). The umbrella as an accessory was perhaps Burmese in origin (the country was then a part of British India).
A brief write up on the modern girl of the 30s here.
A previous post of mine mentioned the movie Miss 1933, its modern heroine Miss Gohar and its trendsetting fashions (sunglasses!, driving a car! umbrellas!). I couldn’t find any images though and suddenly there it was, thanks to Sparrow Online.
They really loved sleeveless blouses and arm bands in the 30s.
PS: Elsewhere another Miss 1933 was a lot more pensive in a year when fairy-princes were thin on the ground🙂
Vintage Indian Clothing 
