Design Resource
Lungi Weaving - Vellore
South Indian Traditional Men's Wear
by
Prof. Bibhudutta Baral, Divyadarshan C. S. and Amulya S.
Introduction
Lungi is one of the traditional wear predominately in South India, which is worn mostly by the men. It is like a wrap-around cloth for men, which is in rectangular shape. It is worn around the waist, which comes along the thighs, legs and knotted in such a way that the cloth doesn't slip or come undone. It is casual wear for laborers, and when men at home, they prefer lungi the most because of its comfortability. Lungi can be multi-colored to being simple plain white in color. In multi-colored lungi, it is given a design pattern while weaving with weft yarn. Most of the designs are in checkered and checks pattern with a single dark hue. The lungi has thin line stripes in grey running horizontally at the top and bottom of the fabric which helps in preventing in tattering of the cloth because of its reinforced weaving. The white plain lungis are worn on the occasion, which has an elegant golden border weaved with golden zari embroidery which is also called as Dhoti.
These lungis are basically woven of cotton and in silk for occasional wear. Lungi has various ways to wear about like half-folded like a skirt, spun around the leg like a pant and it is fastened in many ways. All the categories and classes of people wear lungi as casual wear at home. For some lungi has been an outfit for the complete day especially for the people who stay in humid and tropical region.
Lungi is a standard cotton cloth weaved 1.15 meters in height and 2.0 meters in length. It is basically weaved most in handloom and power-loom. It is available in a variety of colors with checks, strips or plain colored and in white too. Most of the southern states in India like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala are famous for Lungi production. It is very much used by Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka people too.
Gudiyatham is a town in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. It is a place where our first National flag was weaved, which was first hoisted on 15th August 1947, by the first Prime Minister Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. This place is popular for making lungi, safety matches and local tobacco product called beedi. Lungi which is manufactured is of handloom companies, who export the Lungis to different states of the country and to foreign countries. The foreign countries who wear this lungi are Sri Lanka, Burna, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and many other places. Raw materials such as cotton yarn, chemicals, and other things are imported from Mumbai and Chennai.
