The Wonderful World of the Indian Nightie

Every morning, in large parts of India, women wake up, have a bath and change into a fresh nightie. This is then worn throughout the day, certainly at home and even for the occasional dart into the neighbourhood market. It is common to find women of all ages and backgrounds breaking bhindi ends together at a vegetable shop resplendent in their nighties. And this sight is not limited to the large cities but in most of urban India. Like the engagement ring, the nightie is an alien habit that we have embraced without reservation but in our own unique way. What has allowed this form of attire to penetrate so easily into our consciousness?

The nightie is designed like a smock, making few allowances for the contours of the wearers’ body, but registering its femaleness by means of its design (large green floral prints seem to be all the rage right now). The nightie does not emphasise any part of the body and is designed to make the watchers gaze slip off the body without allowing it to come to rest anywhere in particular.

While belonging to the larger family of the negligee, the nightie is an adherent of a different school of thought altogether, being careful to steer clear of anything frilly, lacy, racy or sheer.  It is resolute in its modesty and is feminine enough only to prevent men from looking fetching by lounging around in it. As the name suggests the nightie in India was originally meant as bedtime wear, like anywhere else in the world- its current use as an all day attire is something that its wearers have evolved. It is interesting that its current popularity has been generated not by any clever marketing campaign but entirely by the user who has seen in it value not originally intended. 

The easiest explanation for this unrestrained adoption of an alien form of clothing is that it makes the wearer feel extremely comfortable. But its popularity suggests that it has struck a deeper chord than that. The nightie is perhaps a deceptively understated banner of revolution. It is a garment of liberation, a freedom smock. The nightie is one garment that does not tie a woman to her body. It has no strings, hooks or knots and falls freely over her, letting her body be. It offers her freedom from shape, from the burden of the gendered curves of her body. Worn usually when the woman is by herself, there is a naturalness that the nightie confers on its wearer, an ease that allows her to navigate through her daily life as a person rather than as a gendered being. 

 It helps that being of alien origin, the nightie frees women from the coded garments of the past, but in a way that invites no social opprobrium. The saree and the salwar kameez are both garments that are embedded with implicit social roles. Pallus have to be watched and dupattas need to be attentive guardians of the body. The nightie by virtue of being extremely modest in its design is as legitimate as these garments, but is more convenient and has the additional advantage of being modern.

More than any other new form of attire, the nightie is perhaps is a truly modern garment. The nightie tells us that modernity is at its heart about functionality rather than appearances. By helping detach the woman from the past that she is otherwise embedded in, and by giving her a sense of individual-ness, the nightie helps the woman luxuriate in her ‘modern’ self. As against a more overtly contemporary garment like the skirt, which is a loud sign of modernity, the nightie minimises its role as an outward sign and concentrates on delivering a real benefit. It is precisely because it appears harmless that it manages its modest revolution. It brings about change because it displays little desire to do so. 

Its power lies in its ability to be both modern and modest; to be both personally liberating and socially legitimate. As an innovation in couture, the nightie may not have a page devoted to it in the history of Indian fashion, but in the on-going quest of the Indian woman to retrieve some space for herself, the nightie deserves at least a footnote.

(This essay is excerpted from my book Mother Pious Lady- Making Sense of Everyday India, Harper Collins, 2010)