Pakistani clothing is the traditional and modern styles of dress worn by the Pakistani people, reflecting their diverse cultures, regions, and ethnic backgrounds. Pakistani clothing expresses the culture of Pakistan. The clothing reflect weather conditions, way of living, the textiles and embroidery used and its distinctive style which gives it a unique identity among all cultures.
National dress The shalwar kameez, achkan, sherwani and kurta shalwar kameez are the national dresses of PakistanNobleman, Marc Tyler (2003) PakistanWest, Barbara. A (2009) Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania worn by men and women in all regions. Shalwar refers to loose trousers and kameez refers to shirts. Since 1982, all officials working in the secretariat are required to wear the national dress.Ali Banuazizi, Myron Weiner (1986) The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan; [this Vol. Had Its Origin in a Conference on "Islam, Ethnicity and the State in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan" ... Held in November 1982, in Tuxedo, New York] Each province has its own variant of salwar kameez. Pakistanis wear clothes ranging from exquisite colours and designs to various types of fabric such as silk, chiffon, cotton, etc.Qadeer. Mohammad (2006) Pakistan - Social and Cultural Transformations in a Muslim Nation
Men's clothing Men wear shalwar kameez, kurta, Pakistani Waistcoat, achkan and sherwani, churidar, or pajama. Other items of clothing include the jama and the angarkha. Headgear includes turbans, the Jinnah Cap, also called karakul, fez, and taqiyah. Kheri and Khussa are popular foot wear. During winter months, and generally across the northern regions of the country, men drape traditional shawls made of Pashmina or other warm materials. In the northern regions of the country, mainly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, the pakol hat is worn.
While many elements overlap, every province and ethnicity have nuanced approaches to the garments.
Regional clothing
Balochistan
In Balochistan, traditionally a long jama (robe) like a smock-frock is worn down to the heels, loose shalwar, a long chadar or scarf, a pagri of cotton cloth, and mostly shoes that narrow at the toe.Mir Khuda Bakhsh Marri (1974) Searchlights on Baloches and Balochistan The material is thick cloth with a very wide shalwar to protect against the hot winds of the dry Sulaiman Range and Kharan Desert.
Sindh Sindhi style salwar khamis are common everyday dress nowadays,Hasan, Shaikh Khurshid (1996) Chaukhandi tombs in PakistanGera, Nalini (2003) Ram Jethmalani: the authorized biography Sindhi salwar/suthan is wider at waist and gets narrower below knees till ankles where it is loosely fitted, second style of salwar is Kancha which has very wide (pancha) ankle-cuffs, used to be worn back in time, the third style of shalwar has very less pleats or no pleats at all but is loose like pajamo. Sindhi khamis is usually shorter, before the adoption of khamis, Sindhi men used to wear short angrakho called angelo, later Sindhi pehran/pehriyan (a collarless kurta tunic) tied at one side or in center resembling Sindhi angelo was common, both angelo and pehriyan were sometimes embroidered with Sindhi embroideries and mirrorwork, Sindhi men also wear embroidered vests under the Khamis called ganji, while the different waistcoats (koti, sadri, gidi, kaba) were worn over tunics.Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan, Volume 20, Issues 27-39 (1968) Some men in rural areas wear Sindhi lungi (only muslims) called "Godd", whereas hindus wore Dhoti or Treto while others wore tight fitting pajamas and a long jama, the rich men wore sherwanis with gold buttons. With clothes Sindhi men wear Sindhi patko, pagg or phento (turbans), youngsters wear Sindhi cap, and men carry Ajrak or any other locally made shawls/handkerchief on shoulders.
Punjab
Punjabi men wear the straight cut Punjabi shalwar kameez, kurta, or shalwar. Dhoti, lungi, or tehmat are often worn in rural areas.Pakistan culture (1997)West Pakistan Year Book (1961)Area Handbook for Pakistan (1975) Other Punjabi shalwar styles include the Pothohari shalwar,Mohinder Singh Randhawa. (1960) Punjab: Itihas, Kala, Sahit, te Sabiachar aad.Bhasha Vibhag, Punjab, Patiala Multani shalwar, Dhoti shalwar, and the Bahawalpuri shalwar which is very wide and baggyCurrent Opinion, Volume 25 (1899) with many folds. Turban of a thin cloth is also worn especially in rural areas of Punjab where it is called pagri. Footwear include the khussa and kheri, which are widely worn.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Pashtun dress differ according to region but usually people wear traditional Peshawari chappal as footwear and a Pakol or turban as headwear. The traditional male Pashtun dress includes the Khet partug,Pathans: Compiled Under the Order of the Government of India at the Recruiting Office, Peshawar (1938) Peshawari shalwar, and the Patke tunban. Males usually wear kufi, Peshawari turban, or pakol as traditional headgear.
Gilgit-Baltistan The traditional caps of Gilgit-Baltistan include pakol and iraghi (also known as khoi).
Azad Kashmir The clothing of Azad Kashmir includes various styles of the shalwar kameez. It is called pheran.
Women's clothing Shalwar kameez Pakistani women wear the shalwar kameez which is worn in different styles, colours, and designs which can be decorated with different styles and designs of embroidery. The kameez can be of varying sleeve length, shirt length, and necklines. The drawers can be the straight-cut shalwar, patiala salwar, churidar, cigarette pajama, tulip trouser, samosa pajama, or simple trouser
Dupatta
The dupatta is treated just as an accessory in current urban fashion. Most women who carry it nowadays wear it just as a decorative accessory; it's usually worn wrapped around the neck or hanging down the shoulder. Dupatta is also used by some women when entering a mosque, dargah, where they cover their head with a dupatta while entering such places. It is widely worn by women in weddings and other parties out of choice and fashion. On such occasions, mostly it is wrapped around the waist, neck, or just draped on a shoulder. It is used with different embroidery designs of kamdani and gota.
Burqa In Pakistan, upper and middle-class women in towns wear burqas over their normal clothes in public. The burqa is the most visible dress in Pakistan. It is a garment worn over the ordinary clothes and is made of white cotton. Many upper-class women wear a two-piece burqa which is usually black in colour but sometimes navy blue or dark red. It consists of a long cloak and a separate headpiece with a drop-down face veil. Some educated urban women no longer wear the burqa, while some of them wear hijab as an alternative. The burqa is also not worn by rural peasant women who work in the fields. In rural areas only elite women wear burqas. Purdah is still common in the rural elite and urban middle class, but not among rural farmers.
Bridal dresses Pakistani brides traditionally opt for lehengas, anarkalis, or shararas and ghararas. Most wear lehengas, popularly either with short lehenga cholis or a longer shalwar top. Lehengas are long skirts usually paired with a short blouse known as a choli, but can be paired with a long shalwar kameez. Anarkalis are also an option, imitating gowns. Shararas consist of a blouse or shalwar, with loose pants. Ghararas, are similar, except the pants are tight at the thighs and flare from the knee. All these options are normally intricately embroidered, and are moderately popular with Indian brides too.
Other traditional dresses On special occasions such as Eid more heavily embroidered iterations of the shalwar kameez are worn by Pakistani women.
Farshi Pajama is an old traditional dress which is worn occasionally. Laacha is worn in Punjab,Focus on Pakistan, Volume 2 (1972) the lower part of which resembles the dhoti.
Regional clothing
Balochistan
The typical dress of a Baloch woman consists of a long frock and shalwar with a headscarf.Dashti, Naseer (2012) The Baloch and Balochistan: A Historical Account from the Beginning to the Fall of the Baloch State Balochi women wear heavy embroidered shalwar kameez and dupatta with the embroidery utilising Shisha work.Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan, Volume 21, Issues 1-16 The Balochi Duch from Makran District is one of the many forms of Balochi dresses and is famous all across Balochistan. Since it is purely hand embroidered, Balochi Duch is expensive and it takes months to complete a single Balochi suit.
Sindh
Sindhi women just like Sindhi men commonly wear Sindhi Salwar with wide and long Cholo (tunic) nowadays, with Sindhi embroideries and mirrorwork, along with large Sindhi veil (Rao, Gandhi, Poti), back In time the traditional dresses of Sindhi women varied from region to region, from tribe to tribe as much as that the clothes become mark of identification of one's tribe, but most common code of dresses were Sindhi Cholo/Choli of various styles and embroidered (Gaj/Aggoti), trousers salwars/suthan or pajamo was usually made of Soossi, silk or satin fabric and over salwars a wide Bandhani (tie and dye) cloth Paro/Ghaghro/Pashgeer/Jablo (skirt), or of Satin or Sossi fabric skirt.Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills (2003) South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka while some Sindhi women wore long thobe like dresses called Jubo in Sindhi, and other Sindhi women wore frocks called (Ghagho, Abho or Fairak) in Sindhi.
Punjab
Punjabi women wear the straight cut Punjabi shalwar kameez,Tracey Skelton, Gill Valentine (2005) Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures which is most frequently worn. Punjabi women, in villages, also wear the Pothohari shalwar, the Patiala shalwar, the laacha (tehmat),Nasreen Askari, Rosemary Crill (1997) Colours of the Indus: Costume and Textiles of Pakistan In the cities, straight-cut shalwars and pants are worn by majority. The females youngsters in the Punjab frequently wear jeans and short shirts or tee-shirts. id=jWRQAAAAMAAJ&q=lacha+punjabi+dress&dq=lacha+punjabi+dress&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFIQ6AEwB2oVChMI0LODq7KkxwIV7wrbCh16ogS8 kurti,Punjab District Gazetteers: Rawalpindi District (v. 28A) (1909) ghagra,Chaudhry, Nazir Ahmad (2002) Multan Glimpses: With an Account of Siege and Surrender lehenga, and phulkari.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
In urban areas women typically wear the shalwar kameez.Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills (2003) South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka Pashtun women commonly wear shalwar kameez and in some regions, particularly in Tribal areas, women wear firaq partug which is also worn in neighbouring Afghanistan. In Kalash region, women wear embroidered long shirts.
Wedding dresses In Pakistan, the traditional wedding ceremony is celebrated by wearing different clothes in each wedding event. Usually, the style and designs of wedding attire vary across different regions from north to the south among different ethnic communities. However, in major urban cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi, on the occasion of the Rasm-e-Heena (Mendhi), men wear an embroidered Kameez in glittering colours with simple shalwar. Up to the wedding day, the bride may wear a yellowIllustrated Weekly of Pakistan, Volume 20, Issues 27-39 (1968) or orange kameez, with a simple shalwar, Patiala shalwar, yellow dupatta, and yellow paranda — more commonly in the Punjab region of Pakistan. However, in other regions customs vary. For example, in the north-west, particularly in the tribal areas, it is customary for a bride to wear Firaq Partug.