Costume Tips & Tricks

[Harman]

PLEASE PIN YOUR CHADRA! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahahahah anyone rmr tbp 07 lol

that one exhibition act

 

[mafzal]

I think the most important thing is to make sure the chunni is looking nice and make sure your bangs are clipped down and not jumpin around with the music (mariam lol)

uuuhhhhh yeah... or else you will forever be known as "girl with the bangs" :-[ lol I had pinned them down but I guess I need to invest in hair spray and use clips instead of cheap bobby pins. It did look pretty silly so I definitely learned my lesson. Very distracting, too

We tie our salwar high and pin the bottoms but I feel like it ruins the look of them, I mean Punjabi salwar are cut to have a certain silhouette and flow and shape and I always feel like I lose that when they are pinned at the bottom and tied so high. Has anyone had their salwar hemmed? If so, from the bottom or from "belt" area where all the gathers of fabric meet the top (about 5 inches down from the waist) I hope someone knows what I am talking about!

Being 5 minutes from Detroit we found quite a selection of cheap weaves, I mean fake gutts to use lol

 

[HMalhi]

for people who don't have really short hair (buzz cut), the bandana helps the pagg from not slipping off

 

[Somi]

I think the punjabi shalwars are hard to dance in...I prefer a light weight shalwar with less phairs (the folds at the belt). its easier and fun, no worries
what you can do its get the bottom (pochaan) tight. 5-51/2 inches. my normal shalwar is like that.
but from the waist to belt, 5-6 inches is perfect, depending on the person.

 

[Meistro]

and please shape your beard properly so its presentable before your performance. it should be full and dark, but please clean that bad boy up. also refreain from chin straps! separation of musch and beard is a plus. kundiyan muschan is a PLUS x 10.......i only had the patience twice to wait a month and a half for my musch to grow like that. and boy are the results fruitful ..........I kno facial hair isnt the actual costume, but it definately adds onto it

 

[Sunny]

anyone wanna put up a video on how to tie sickkk chadras,i kno how but there not as clean as i want them to be

 

[Somi]

a question for the girls

make-up; do you have it the same? how "bright/standing out" is the eyeshadow? does everyone do their own or one person?
does it even make a difference if it is on or not?

 

[Kaur]

Makeup---it doesnt have to be the same because honestly you cant notice. Making it bright or not is a personal preference, with us personally we dont add color other then our lip gloss and other then that is all just shimmer and gold powder etc etc

 

[Vick]

Meistro sure does know a lot about womens clothing...

 

[Pooja]

Great advice here...

We also use clear nail polish to make our tikkas stick on our foreheads, if you put enough and press down for like 30 seconds it should stay!

And we do some major criss cross bobby pinning for our chunnis, and we put a pin to our vests on each shoulder(our costumes are a little different than most girls' that I've seen) and to tie our hair we put it in a bun and then like Somi said we put a rubber band on the end of our parandis so you can just put it on your bun basically and don't even have to tie it into your hair. And we pin the parandi to the vests near the lower part so they don't fly around. Some people pin up the ponchas on the salvaars but I just tie mine like really high waisted so it doesn't come under my feet...I'm short so I may also have a shorter salvaar anyways.

I just put pins EVERYWHERE like double the amount usual so nothing falls...I think it looks so bad when things fall off...and you can't see them from far away so it doesn't hurt to be on the safe side!

 

[Manjot]

having long hair makes it harder to di Paggs and its more pain when putting the Farla in lol...also make sure your Farla doesn't flap when you shake your head..if it does then use pins to hold it back...and like Meistro said Khundiyaan Muschan are a must...it gives a whole different having khundiyaan Muschan with a pagg compared to jus a beard..

 

[kinnell]

anyone wanna put up a video on how to tie sickkk chadras,i kno how but there not as clean as i want them to be

I will definitely also appreciate this.

make sure the pughs you use are VOIL fabric, it's the lightest so when you starch the turla, it starches nicely and when you tie the pugh tight, you don't feel like you have a tokra on your head.

Is this stuff available at a fabric store? If not, where can I git git git some? I've had problems before with our paagri being of a weird material.

 

[Somi]

ladies
do you guys put elastic or a nala in your shalwar?

 

[mafzal]

I like elastic, cut right to my size.
I hate when you have a big jumble of naara bulging out.

 

[kamdeol]

we've been using naala's for awhile, we tried elastic last year and it kept slipping down for some girls no matter how small or tight we made it and never really felt right.

 

[BaldeepK]

Oh also, what do you wear underneath the pugg? Do you tie a bandana or something over your hair before you begin tying the pagg?

I like to wear a Bandanna because i have long hair. also it makes it easier to tuck in the thurla in when finished. And the thing with puggs is that if u use the real thurlas then if the pug is too tight the u'll have a hard time tucking it in, soo u can't tie then too tight and not too loose, and having or boys practice with them on really, i think, doesn't make a difference. but u can always try. i would say something about tricks for girls stuff but i don't know any, thas all kam d.

 

[Jeeti]

Yes, make sure you wear a bandana underneath...not only because of what Baldeep said but also because if you don't have a Jooda, Puggs tend to slip off like crazy...the bandana helps prevent the Pugg from slipping off.

 

[Jabar Jung]

Is this stuff available at a fabric store? If not, where can I git git git some? I've had problems before with our paagri being of a weird material.

It depends on where you live really, if you live where theres a lot of indian/punjabi stores then you definately should be able to get it if not then just get if from India :-\...i am not sure if fabric stores have the material.

 

[BaldeepK]

anyone wanna put up a video on how to tie sickkk chadras,i kno how but there not as clean as i want them to be

I will definitely also appreciate this.

make sure the pughs you use are VOIL fabric, it's the lightest so when you starch the turla, it starches nicely and when you tie the pugh tight, you don't feel like you have a tokra on your head.

Is this stuff available at a fabric store? If not, where can I git git git some? I've had problems before with our paagri being of a weird material.

There is a special way of tying a chadra...u have to use too people to get the best results...its way to hard to explain online...much easier on a video or in person...tryin post a video that shows how u tie it and im sure u will get replies on where ur going wrong..

 

[sorethighs]

I think its pretty lame when teams show up to a competition and don't know how to tie pughs. If you don't have someone on your team who can tie a pugh before you go backstage to get dressed, don't expect that someone from another team will just magically appear to tie them for you. Its a burden on someone to be tying 15 pughs or more for multiple teams.

Bandana- This is really personal experience and preference. Everyone's hair/head is different. If the person tying the pugh is gonna be able to do a better job if you wear a bandana, wear one. One time I wore bobby pins to hold my hair back instead of a bandana b/c I had a big fro.

If you tie a bandana with a square knot in the back of your head and you feel a big pain where the knot is, next time try to tie half a knot, just the overhand portion, and don't complete it. The tension from the pugh will hold the bandana on your head, and the back will lie flat, instead of having a bulbous knot that will dig into your head.

Phuman- This will vary with the size of the guy's arm, but when I tie phuman on someone I do a tdo a double overhand knot first. Start off like you're tying your shoes, but then do an extra overhand knot at the beginning. This double overhand knot is the main source of tension for the rest of the knot. Unlike a single overhand knot which loosens if you release tension, this one stays the same if you release tension. Next, I form two loops, as if I'm tying a shoelace, and loop these loops of the right and left balls (yes, I said balls). After the loops are around the balls, pull on the two ends to tighten the whole thing.

Kainthe- One time my kainthe smacked me in the tooth during a performance. If you're worried that the same might happen to you, pin the kainthe to your kurta on top of your sternum.

Vests/jackets- I used to pin the vest to the inside of the kurta to keep it from bouncing around as much, but I'm not sure if it really makes that big of a difference.

A good way to organize everything that needs ironing is to put each person's outfit on a hanger with a label. That way no one needs to go ruffling through a suitcase to find their dance clothes.