Nehru jacket

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Jawaharlal Nehru in a achkan or sherwani, a garment which served as a model for the Nehru jacket.
Jawaharlal Nehru in a achkan or sherwani, a garment which served as a model for the Nehru jacket.

The Nehru jacket is a hip-length tailored coat for men or women, with a stand-up or "mandarin" collar, and modeled on the South Asian achkan or sherwani, an apparel worn by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1964. However, unlike the achkan, which falls somewhere below the knees of the wearer, the Nehru jacket is not only shorter, but also, in all respects other than the collar, resembles the suit jacket.

The apparel was created in India in the 1940s as Band Gale Ka Coat (Hindi/Urdu: "Closed Neck Coat") and has been popular on the subcontinent since, especially as the top half of a suit worn on formal occasions. It began to be marketed as the Nehru jacket in the West in the mid-1960s; it was briefly popular there in the late 1960s and early 1970s, its popularity spurred by growing awareness of foreign cultures, by the minimalism of the Mod lifestyle, and, in particular, by the Monkees and the Beatles, who popularized the garment.

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[edit] Notable wearers

A Nehru vest or waistcoat, worn with tight fitting churidar pants and cotton kurta (a loose overshirt)
A Nehru vest or waistcoat, worn with tight fitting churidar pants and cotton kurta (a loose overshirt)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 191.
  2. ^ Steven Gan | May 23, 2006 . "Interviewing Dr M". Malaysiakini.

[edit] External links