Balochistan is a culturally rich place with its beauty being reflected in everything, the deserts, the coastline, the food and also clothing. The baloch apparel is distinct and has diversity withholding the essence of balochi culture and modesty.
The Baluch garb is a beautiful garment that Balouchis carry as their proud heritage. Baloch male wear loose trouser (shalwar) measuring 20 to 40 yards, long chador (scarf), pag (turban) measuring 15 to 20 yards and loose shirt called Kurta. The most preferred colours are white and black. The only colored item in their dress is their Chogha (an overcoat) which has intricate hand-embroidery patterns in coloured threads.
Gold ornaments such as necklaces and bracelets are an important aspect of Balochi women’s traditions and among their most favoured items of jewellery are dorr, heavy earrings that are fastened to the head with gold chains so that the heavy weight will not cause harm to the ears. They usually wear a gold brooch (tasni) that is made by local jewellers in different shapes and sizes and is used to fasten the two parts of the dress together over the chest.
The female balochi dress has three essential parts, a shirt resembling a long frock, a large piece of cloth called a dupatta in Urdu and ‘sareeg’ in Balochi is used to cover the head and a shalwar or trouser. The frock is stitched using different pieces of the cloth cut and then stitched together. The different pieces are called Zee, the upper part, Gupthan, which is the distinctive feature of the dress, is a pocket attached on the lower part of the front of the dress. The two sidepieces are called “chain”. The sleeves are also separately cut.
Before being stitched the different parts of the dress have to get embroidered by the talented baloch women. The embroidery is called ‘doch’. The balochi embroidery is varied and captivating just like Balochistan itself. The basic pattern of the dress remains the same however, the doch differs from place to place according to the weather and also social status.
Each doch has a different pattern and the threads used comprise of all sorts of colors. One of the doch is known is ‘haft runga’ haft means seven and rung means colour. The dress comprises of seven colors with embroidery on all the pieces of the cloth. Interestingly, the embroidery doesn’t consist of thread work only; the women also use small pieces of mirrors called ‘sheeshag’ to embellish their dresses. The mirrors are cut in different shapes like square round and triangular. These are small mirrors, which are then attached to the dress to make it funkier.
There are different embroideries for the old and young, the old women stick to dark and decent colours whereas the youngsters play with the different shades of colours with the mirrors and other beads being attached to their dresses.The threads used in the bridal dress are mostly golden or silver and in which all sorts of beads are embroidered on bright colors.