I still remember the last time I wore a kurti without thinking twice about it. I was maybe thirteen. Somewhere between school ending and "adult life" starting, my everyday wardrobe quietly turned into jeans, tees, and whatever H&M had on sale that month. Indian clothes didn't disappear from my life they just became a second option. Be it Diwali, weddings, or the occasional family function, I remember my aai would say "kuch traditional pehen lo" and I'd dig out the one traditional kurti set I owned.
I don't think this happened to just me. I think it happened to most of us ; this quiet drift away from Indian clothes as everyday wear is something a lot of modern Indian women my age went through. And lately, I've been noticing it reversing , especially since I own a clothing brand. So I wanted to actually sit and talk about why young Indians stopped wearing traditional clothes, and how Indo-Western fashion is making a comeback.
Why Indian Clothes Were Once Everyday Wear
Now that I am thinking about it, there weren't many choices. Cotton kurtas, sarees, salwar kameez : these weren't outfits you planned for, they were what you reached for on a random Tuesday. Comfortable, breathable, weather-appropriate. My grandmother didn't own "festive clothes" and "regular clothes" as separate categories. It was mostly one, styled differently for different days or occasions.
What Changed Over the Decades
Somewhere along the way, that line got drawn. A few things pushed it there, and none of them happened overnight.
School and college uniforms were probably the first shift and an entire generation grew up associating Western silhouettes with "normal," and Indian wear with "occasion." Then came the corporate setting where "office formal" quietly became shirts and trousers, even in Indian companies, in Indian cities.
But if I'm being honest, there's a less flattering reason too. A lot of us grew up with Indian wear being pushed onto us specifically because it was "modest" as well as the safe, appropriate, covering-everything option, handed to us with more obligation than choice. It wasn't styled as something exciting; it was styled as something expected. That framing didn't just make traditional wear feel like a chore but it chipped away at your sense of choice over your own body. And when clothing feels forced rather than chosen, of course you drift away from it the moment you have a say in your own wardrobe.
On top of that, the kurtis or traditional Indian wear most of us grew up with was kind of boring. Same silhouette, same straight cut, just same prints in different colors, nothing you could actually play with. There wasn't room to experiment. You couldn't dress it up, dress it down, or make it feel like you. It was rooted in the bias of what was considered "traditional and appropriate," which is exactly the opposite of who our generation is. We're raised on self-expression, experimentation, and the freedom to define ourselves on our own terms. What we wear should give us the confidence to express who we are, however we choose to dress ourselves.
Why Indian Fashion Is Making a Comeback
Here's the part I find interesting, because this comeback doesn't look like the Indian wear we grew up dismissing.
Gen Z likes to play around with fashion i.e. mixing silhouettes, breaking rules, styling things in ways they weren't "meant" to be styled. And Indian wear is finally being designed to allow that. Corsets are back, but paired with block-print kurtis instead of just Western tops. Co-ord sets, structured silhouettes, fitted waists, unexpected cuts and different necklines . Indian wear right now is trendy in a way it simply wasn't given room to be before. It's no longer "obligated kurti." It's something you can actually experiment with, the same way you would with any other piece in your wardrobe.
There's also something deeper happening alongside the styling shift. A lot of young adults in college, at work, even living abroad are feeling a pull back toward their roots. There's nostalgia in it. Wearing something that's unmistakably Indian, especially when you're far from home or surrounded by a very different culture, becomes a quiet way of staying connected to where you're from, and of being proud of it, rather than shrinking away from it.
COVID played a bigger role in this than people give it credit for. With everyone stuck at home and scrolling more than ever, social media started showing the process behind Indian textiles ; how a block print is actually carved and stamped by hand, how a fabric is dyed, how much skill goes into something we used to take for granted. That visibility changed how people saw traditional craft. It stopped being "old-fashioned" and started looking like art. People started wearing Indian wear with pride, showing off its craftsmanship instead of hiding it.
Social media hasn't just educated people , it's made Indian wear look aspirational again. A kurti styled with shorts, a co-ord set for a casual day out , these are the images filling everyone's feed now, and they've done more to normalise Indian wear as daily wear than any campaign could.
Styling Indian Wear for Everyday Life
Once I started styling Indian wear like regular clothes instead of "outfits," everything got easier. A block-print kurti over shorts instead of salwar. A backless corseted kurti with sneakers for a college day. Layering a jacket over a kurta on a cooler evening. None of this needs an occasion ; it just needs pieces built to move with your day, not just sit in your festive-wear drawer.
This Is What Choosing Looks Like — Shop Saheli
We built our Saheli collection around exactly this idea: corset backs, sleeve and sleeveless options, and silhouettes designed to work across different body types. Because "traditional" shouldn't mean one silhouette fits everyone.
And the response has told us we were right to bet on it. Most of the people buying Saheli are young, and they're not buying it because they have to. They're buying it because, finally, they get to choose what traditional wear looks like for them.
We designed each style with a different woman in mind, because personal style doesn't come in one shape.
- Yara — corset-backed and backless, for the bolder ones who want their traditional wear with a little edge.
- Anisa — full-sleeved with bell sleeves, for those who prefer a more modest silhouette but still want a cool, contemporary detail.
- Sakhi — a longer kurti for those who love the comfort, elegance, and ease of a longer silhouette.
Different bodies. Different personalities. Different ways of dressing. That's what traditional wear should make room for.
The Future of Everyday Indian Fashion
I don't think Indian wear is going to fully replace Western wardrobes, and it doesn't need to. What feels different this time is that it's not boring anymore, and it's not forced anymore ; it's a choice, and increasingly, an aesthetic one. A kurta isn't waiting for a festival. A corset detail isn't reserved for a Western top. It's just Tuesday, styled the way you actually want to.
That's the gap we've tried to design into at Tanoti: cotton-first, made-to-order pieces that let you play around with silhouette instead of settling for the same old shape, sized from XS to 5XL because good design shouldn't have a size limit.
