Across the street from Rahman's shop is a jewelry store where Sona Wadud's mother, Shabnum Wadud, works. Shabnum wears traditional clothes most of the time. But she is reluctant to wear saris because speaking to her diverse assortment of customers with her back, stomach and arms exposed makes her uncomfortable. While South Asian attitudes about Indian clothes vary, many people with no connection to the subcontinent are still drawn to its fashions. Stars such as Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Nicole Kidman wear them in music videos, at concerts and movie awards shows.
Trendy stores sell imported Indian saris, tapestries and bed sheets.
Shiv Dass, vice president of the Jackson Heights Merchants Association, a predominantly South Asian group in Queens, said that more and more people in the United States are enticed by Indian clothes, as evidenced by the rainbow of people patronizing the 30 Indian garment stores in the neighborhood. But most, Dass said, know little about the clothing's cultural significance, let alone how to wear it. His shop, Kashmeri, has adapted to fit these customers' needs. But when they see the sari, they don't know how to wrap it. We have a tailor who makes a ready-made sari, with skirt pleats and a hook at the waist.