Salwar kameez facts for kids

Pakistani girl and boy with flowers, showing off typical shalwar kameez

A woman in Selçuk, Turkey wearing traditional Turkish trousers similar to a salwar.

Salwar kameez (also spelled shalwar kameez or shalwar qameez) is a traditional dress worn by both women and men in Southern Asia. Salvars or shalvars are loose pajama-like trousers. The legs are wide at the top, and narrow at the bottom. The kameez is a long shirt or tunic. The side seams (known as the chaak) are left open below the waist-line, which gives the wearer greater freedom of movement. It is the most common dress for men in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Images for kids

A modern-style shalwar kameez in India.
Men wearing shalwar kameez at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan.
Shalwar (with Kabuli sandals)
Shalwar
Shalwar kameez, from Max Tilke's Oriental Costume, 1922
Children in shalwar kameez
Men dressed in shalwar kameez on the road to Kalash valleys, Chitral, Pakistan
Schoolgirls in shalwar kameez and headscarves, Abbotabad, Pakistan
Priyanka Chopra modeling an Anarkali suit
Perahan tunban worn by most Pashtun males in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Man in Afghan clothing: perahan tunban
Afghan kids wearing traditional clothes in Kabul
Traditional Khet partug (traditional loose Peshawari shalwar)
Balochi male shalwar kameez, Quetta, 1867
Traditional Balochi suits
Tribal elders, April 1896
Balochi traditional dress
Baluchi dress
Balochi embroidery
Traditional Balochi dresses
Left and right: phiran shalwar; centre: Punjabi suits
Kashmiri phiran
A man from Srinagar wearing phiran
Kashmiri women in traditional long phiran 1870
Kashmiri Pandits in phiran and pajama
Men in Kashmiri phiran and poots, 1875
Punjabi Shalwar kameez
Women in Punjabi suits
Miss Pooja of the Punjab region in a Punjabi suit
Men's Punjabi Shalwaar qamiz
Girls arriving at school, Jammu, ca.1875-ca.1940
Women in ornate shalwars
Saraiki Tehreek
Rohi (Cholistan) woman's bandhani dress (Punjab, Pakistan)
First Punjabi Wikipedia Workshop: women in Punjabi suits
School girls wearing Patiala salwar suits
Nawab Muhammad of Bahawalpur (1868-1900) wearing a loose Bahawalpuri shalwar
Prince Suba Sadiq Abbasi, Bahawalpur
Bahawalpur kameez
Nawab Sadiq Khan Fifth (died 1966) in the Bahawalpuri shalwar
Saraiki fashion
Multani/Saraiki shalwar
Cholistani Saraiki chola
19th-century Punjabi suthan suit worn by the lady on the right
Women in Punjabi suthan 1890
Woman on left in loose Punjabi suthan suit
Punjabi woman in Punjabi suthan and short kurta, 1874
Ancient svasthana and varbana outfit worn during the Gupta Empire, the basis of the Punjabi suthan suit
Men in tight Punjabi suthan, 1893
The Nawab Muhammad Bahawal Khan Abbasi V Bahadur (1883–1907) of Bahawalpur State in suthan
Bertrand Blanchard Acosta in jodhpurs and goggles
Men and boys wearing a knee length variation of the Punjabi ghuttana and Dogri kurta. The full suthan is tight from the knees to the ankles, associated with the Punjab region.
Punjab Hills 1895, Kulu woman in churidar suthan, Himachal Pradesh
Man in Sindhi traditional Kancha shalwar.
Girl from Karachi, Sindh, in a shalwar and blouse. c. 1870. Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library
Man in Sindhi long angerkho(1845)
Woman, in Sind, British India, in Sindhi slim kancha shalwar
Sindhi girl from Karachi, Sind, in Sindhi cholo and narrow suthan. c. 1870
India (Gujarat), man's kediyu suruwal, Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum
Man on the left in jama and chorno (jama/suruwal)
Gujarati men in kediyu
Bandhani prints
Bandhani print open
Photo by Mahalaxmi Silwal; daura suruwal, Nepal's national male dress
Photo by Mahalaxmi Silwal; man in short daura