Culturally appropriate dress

Lahore, Pakistan

Anyone who travels will commit a cultural error from time to time. But generally speaking, if you want to err in such a way that a national uproar will ensue, it helps to be famous. Take the case of Princess Diana’s 1991 visit to Lahore, Pakistan.

Lahore, the Pakistani cultural capital, is home to several national landmarks, including the Badshahi Mosque (above). Completed in 1674 by the Moghul ruler Aurangzeb, the mosque is capable of holding up to 100,000 people. In centuries past it was said to have been the largest mosque in the world; it is still among the largest today.

When Princess Diana walked up the steps with her entourage, removing her shoes as she passed through the imposing Alamagiri Gate, she had a problem that, quite literally, brings us to her knees: her skirt stopped just shy of these said body parts. The outfit, reasonable enough in many other parts of the world, wasn’t at all here.

In contrast to the Oscars, where Monday morning fashion quarterbacks employ television and other media to tear apart people whose clothes they didn’t like, in Pakistan the judicial system was used (by conservative religious leaders) to bring criminal charges against the mosque’s imam. Not only did he allow her inside; he even presented a copy of the Koran to the Short-skirted Highness. The case was eventually dismissed, but the memory of Princess Diana’s fashion faux pas would stay on in the minds of many — including, one supposes, the British royal family. When Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited this same mosque in 2001, Camilla wore an outfit meant to hide even her ankles.

During my own visit to the mosque in 2004, I never saw a female knee (nor, I guess, did I see other travelers). But in other times and places I’ve seen travelers wearing clothes that said anything but “I respect that I’m a guest in your culture.” I remember a young Westerner at a cafe in Hue, Vietnam, for instance, braless and donning a revealing white shirt, whose dress had put an awkward electricity in the air. The Vietnamese people serving her, though courteous, were visibly uneasy. The young woman was traveling with an aspect of her culture or personal style that the workers in this family-run cafe clearly wished she would have left behind.

While Princess Diana’s slip-up isn’t by any means one of her prominent legacies, it does provide us with a high profile lesson in the importance of dress in cross-cultural settings, especially in places where modesty is highly regarded. Much more could be said about this topic — please share your thoughts in the comment section.