I was in India for the last two months, I was there for one wedding but ended up going to at least five. This time, I didn’t do much sightseeing; I just went shopping and went to weddings. So, to commemorate my time there, I thought a fun topic to cover would be my experience shopping for wedding clothes in India. My experience is limited to shopping as a wedding guest in my hometown of Navsari, but we did venture out to Chikhli, Surat and Valsad. This time we explored a bit more because last time we brought three or four things from the same store, and my sister wished we had explored more, so she could be 100% sure of her purchases.

I think it is worth mentioning that this relates to shopping, especially for salwar suits and Chanya cholis (lehengas). Unfortunately, your experience is going to be shaped by your weight and height. But I think that is true for dress shopping here as well, and there are options for plus-size people; you just have to look harder. Storekeepers will constantly tell you “your size is hard to find, and you won’t see this item again.” I guess creating a scarcity mindset, but there are options, though some stores (the smaller ones) will warn you they don’t have your size. It is just what it is. So, here is my experience.

I think we really exhausted Navsari, we went to showrooms, and nearly every store. We even drove by Shantadevi, where most locals do their shopping. The good thing about shopping in Navsari is that it is local, so you can take advantage of the tailors available there and get items made if you are in a crunch. The biggest stores generally are Paresenath, Minaxi, and Anokhi. There are options for stitched and unstitched, but Paresenath only sells stitched pieces; they do make adjustments such as adding sleeves and tightening or loosening. Some places have fixed pricing, but others don’t. I think, overall, Minaxi has the best range, offering a broader selection of items that NRIs will like. It is, however, the more expensive option compared to other places, even after you have bargained. The thing I didn’t like about shopping in Navsari is that the sellers aren’t very enthusiastic; they will show you four items and, if you don’t want anything, try to convince you to pick one rather than show you more. I brought my palazzo suit, my metallic pink one and my multi-coloured Chanya cholis from here.

Chikhli

My sister didn’t find anything she liked in Navsari, so we decided to go to Chikhli, a town an hour away. Here we went to Nanak and Aashirvaad. I didn’t shop at Aashirvaad, but my dad liked their menswear. I think Aashirvaad had limited plus-size options, based on what my sister told me. So, Nanak is a showroom that sells casual to formal wear for everyone. We were looking at Chanya cholis for my sister, and they had a range of unstitched and stitched ones. They will sew the Chanya for you, and you have to find someone for the blouse, but they will make alterations on the stitched ones. The store Nanak has fixed prices. They had more patience here than the people in Navsari, as they kept showing us everything they had. I wasn’t going to buy anything, but my dad kept pressuring me, and so I ended up buying the green Chanya choli. The problem with buying from Nanak didn’t occur until we went to try to get the blouses sewn, as there was too much material on my one and too little on my sister’s, since, to save space, they overlapped the back and front. It was pretty disappointing as she finally found something she liked. But we were able to get fabric dyed to match the Chanya and use that for the dress. So, we learned a lesson: check the blouse material to see if it’s possible to make a choli with it. (I think this could have happened in other places, too.)

Surat

For my other cousin’s wedding, we decided to go to Surat, also known as the Silk City and the largest textile hub in India. There are many showrooms and clothes stores, but we weren’t interested in that. W went to the Bombay market, which is a shopping complex with endless stores. With the Bombay market, you need someone familiar with clothing and a strategy. One of our aunties owned a sari shop, so she is informed about clothes, and we decided the best way to not get overwhelmed was to only go to shops if we liked something on the mannequins outside.

The shops here are somewhat wholesalers, and so the clothes are cheaper than they are in Navsari, like something that would be 20K in Navsari, you could get for 10K here. There is a lot of confusion about prices because most stores have “fixed prices,” but then there is a 50% discount on the clothes, and then a further 10% discount on that as well. So, you have to take their word on prices. But the variety in the stores was huge, with the types of Zari work and the materials you could get. We made sure to check the blouse fabric this time. It is a bit overwhelming walking there as the shopkeepers are constantly trying to get you to come into their stores, but you get used to drowning out the noise. I liked how they were willing to show you all the stock they had, and if you didn’t like it, they would show you more. Something to consider is that the shops aren’t very accessible, as they are all three stories and there are no lifts. We would generally climb up to look at things and then go down to show our mum. But they do accommodate people who can’t climb up stairs by bringing the stock to the ground floor. We had so much fun looking at everything, and I brought my blue and cream-coloured ones from here.

Valsad

Throughout the highway in and out of Navsari, there are billboards for Rajwadi, a showroom in Valsad. We were curious about what was available here, and on one of our trips to Dhaman (don’t ask), we decided to drop into Valsad. The problem was that it was a Sunday, and Rajwadi was closed. We thought it would be open because Google said it was. Alas, maybe we can go visit next time.

Final Thoughts

I usually don’t enjoy clothes shopping, but I had fun here. I think it is because of the option of having clothes tailored. What we noticed was that we found that the 2000s are back because a lot of the clothes we thought: “isn’t this old, I wore this as a kid.” But it is back. I noticed there wasn’t much colour variety: most stores have lots of pieces in trending colours, but not much in non-trending ones. If I had to go shopping again, I would first go to Bombay market because I like looking at everything, and I would also know what is available elsewhere. I would also go sightseeing in Valsad, but for funsies. But I brought a lot of clothes and think I am sorted for the next ten years with how many weddings I get invited to.