Lawn Clothes: A Temperature Scale for Pakistani Women

We visited my father's chachi (aunt) in Islamabad a few months back. Amidst random conversations, she commented, "People start wearing lawn clothes much earlier in Lahore."

My husband was keen to notice how the light-weight clothing material, lawn has become analogous to the temperature scale for the women of Pakistan.

Lahore witnessed a brief extreme of chillness in the last ten days of 2012 and the first ten days of 2013. Soon after, people switched over to wearing light clothes to cope with the heat that suddenly inundated the air.

I remember my dadi jan (grandmother) commenced wearing lawn clothes from May 1. Those were the times when there was not that much heat in this part of the earth. Back then, people cherished the spring season and wore an assortment of cotton and grip clothes. Nowadays, when people feel drastic weather changes, they convert to wearing lawn clothing even as early as February.

My husband mocks women and their need for different clothing materials all the year round. He claims that women have dragged themselves into this complex situation of getting different materials for each season. He adds that men have coats, hoods, etc. for cold weather. As the temperature declines, they simply increase the layers of clothing they wear.

There was an era when elegant embroideries snatched the market. There was quality and pride in fine varieties. However, of late, there is an increasing hype over the competition between various lawn varieties shrouding the market. Who would have fathomed that a material as feeble and unimpressive as lawn could grow so famous to rock the top charts in market demand.