Women Wedding Suits

What are examples of formal wear in different cultures?

It seems the international norm is the suit and tie or dress, but surely there is a "formal" alternative. Would a sari or kimono be an example of this, or is this just indigenous wear?

Public Comments

1. The Kilt (Scotland) Guiavera (Mexico) (unsure of spelling here)
2. In Malaysia, some women do wear saris to work. The Indian guys would wear a kurta (collarless shirt), mostly its formalwear for religious functions. http://www.jaipurhandicrafts.com/products/Kurta-Pajamas/Kurta-Pajamas27.jpg The Malay women also wear what is called the baju kurung (or roughly translated as the "cage shirt"-lolz it sounds better in Malay!) or the baju kebaya (sorry no translation for the word kebaya. the word 'baju' means "shirt"). Click the links to see them baju kurung http://library.thinkquest.org/C001252F/images/needs/baju_kurung.jpg baju kebaya http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/9857/sitibestdressedqf3.jpg The baju kurung is also an alternative to the pinafore for girls' school uniforms in Malaysia. The baju kurung and the baju kebaya are popular among Malay, Chinese and Indian women in Malaysia as formalwear at the workplace and social functions. The Malay guys would wear Baju Melayu (Malay Shirt). There are less formal ones worn on Friday for prayers and the more formal ones are worn for functions (like weddings). Baju Melayu (on the right) http://i.pbase.com/u36/inda_binda/upload/23677508.Indilyaeid.JPG The Chinese women in Malaysia wear 'cheongsam' (meaning 'long dress') as formal wear but the norm is to wear it at social and work-related functions rather than at work itself. I guess moving around in it would be hard. Malaysian Chinese guys, almost all just wear a suit, so it's kind of tragic.
3. South Asian men and women wear a long blouse that goes to the knee and baggy pants with embroidery and some nice sandals. In Turkey and many other countries, the Islamic formal wear for women is a long silk trench coat that goes to the ankle, with a silk scarf that is pinned under the chin and then one end wrapped around and pinned on the side of the head.