Kurta, Nehru Jacket or Sherwani: Menswear for Diwali

Men's festive dressing in this country is a choice between three things, and most men own the wrong one of the three.

The kurta set — the workhorse

A kurta pajama set covers Dhanteras morning, the family lunch, Bhai Dooj and most of the wedding season's daytime functions. Cotton and Tussar silk for the daytime, silk Katan when the evening matters.

The mistake is buying a heavily worked one. A kurta with embroidery across the whole chest is a single-occasion garment that everybody will remember; a plain one in good cloth with a worked placket is a ten-occasion garment.

The Nehru jacket — buy this if you buy one thing

The highest-return purchase in men's ethnic wear, and it is not close. A Nehru jacket over a plain kurta you already own turns it into an outfit, and it does the same trick over a different kurta the next evening, and over a shirt for an office festive day.

Grey, beige and bottle green outlast the gold ones, which get identified after two wearings. Silk Katan holds its shape better than a blended cloth and is worth the difference.

The sherwani — for the wedding, not for Diwali

A sherwani at a Diwali party is overdressed, and everybody in the room will say so politely. It is wedding clothing: the groom, the brother, the very close friend.

If a wedding is coming, buy it now rather than in January. The alterations on a sherwani are real — sleeve, length, the fit across the shoulders — and every tailor in the city is booked from mid-November.

The indo-western — the answer to "a sherwani is too much"

The jacket-and-trouser sets in indo-western wear sit exactly between the kurta and the sherwani, which is where most receptions and sangeets actually are.

What to buy for this particular week

One kurta set and one Nehru jacket. That is Diwali, Bhai Dooj and the first three weddings. The full range is in RANJH menswear, and the season's timeline is in the six-week plan.