What should I wear to come shopping?

Something easy to change in and out of — leggings, a fitted top, athleisure. You will likely try on several things, and it makes the visit much quicker. Flat shoes you can slip off help too, especially if you are trying saris. One heads-up on colour: Indian celebrations run brighter than most Western dress codes, so come open to emerald, magenta, mustard and gold rather than navy and black.

What do I wear as a non-Indian guest to an Indian wedding or event?

Choose a modest, colorful outfit — a sari, lehenga, salwar kameez, sharara, or gharara. For weddings, avoid white and black (mourning colors) and avoid red unless you are the bride. For Diwali or garba, brighter and bolder is welcome. Come in, tell us the event, and you are out the door in 20 minutes.

Do you carry red bridal lehengas?

Not many. Traditional bridal red, maroon and burgundy is not what we stock deeply. What we do have: bridal lehengas in plum, emerald, navy, ivory and gold, and sarees in red with unstitched blouses you can have made to any shape you want.

What's a reasonable budget for a wedding-guest outfit?

Most guests spend $150 to $250 on a complete outfit — sarees, salwar kameez and lehengas all sit in that range, with the simpler pieces at the lower end. Individually: sarees from $150, salwar kameez from $100, lehengas from $200. Kids outfits are $50 to $125. No pressure, no upselling.

How long does a fitting take?

Many customers walk out in 20 minutes, brides included. You come in with a problem, we solve it that day. We are an efficient in-and-out store, not a two-hour bridal appointment atelier. Made-to-measure wedding party orders are the exception — those are placed online and take about three months.

Do you carry kids' and menswear?

Yes to both. Kids outfits for boys and girls run $50 to $125, with most between $50 and $75. Menswear: kurta pajamas $75 to $125, sherwanis from $250, jodhpuri suits and Indo-western outfits $250 to $350, vests from $100, bridal stoles around $100, and shoes $75 to $100.

Can I buy just a dupatta, blouse, petticoat, or accessory on its own?

Yes — we sell almost everything a la carte. Petticoats are $15, sari falls are $3, and turban cloth (pagri) is about $3.50 a yard. We also sell dupattas, skirts, blouses ready to wear in a range of sizes, fabric for tailoring, artificial jewelry, bangles, tikkas, and other accessories. Come in whether you need a whole outfit or just one missing piece.

Where are you located and when are you open?

18507 Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia, California 90701 — in Little India. Free rear-lot parking. Open Tuesday through Sunday until 6:45 PM. Closed Mondays.

Do you ship or offer virtual fittings?

For everyday shopping we are an in-person store — the point of visiting is trying things on, and you can DM us on Instagram beforehand so we set options aside. Wedding parties are different: bridesmaid and groomsmen outfits are made to measure and ordered online through our order forms, with about three months of lead time.

How much do mens Indian outfits cost?

Kurta pajamas are $75 to $125. Sherwanis start at $250. Jodhpuri suits and Indo-western outfits are $250 to $350. Vests start at $100, bridal stoles are around $100, and mens shoes are $75 to $100. Come in and try things on — most men are dressed in about 20 minutes.

Can you dress my whole bridal party — bridesmaids and groomsmen?

Yes. Bridesmaids choose a pre-draped sari or a pant suit, $150 to $200 each. Groomsmen get a kurta pajama with a vest, or just the vest. Everything is made to measure in one colour picked from our 294-thread card, so the whole party matches. You order online through our wedding party order forms and we confirm every line with you before anything is made.

How far ahead do I need to order bridesmaid and groomsmen outfits?

About three months. These are made to order and come from our supplier in India, so we will not promise a wedding date we cannot hit. If your date is closer than that, come into the store — we carry saris, lehengas and menswear in stock and have dressed whole parties off the floor in an afternoon.

What Should You Wear to a Puja?

September 4, 2026

If you have been invited to a puja — sometimes spelled pooja — you are probably wondering how dressed up you are supposed to be.

A puja is a Hindu prayer or worship ceremony. It might take place at a temple, in someone's home, or as part of a larger celebration: a wedding, a housewarming, a baby's naming ceremony, a festival. Around here that often means BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills, one of the mandirs on Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk, or a living room in Cerritos, Artesia or Buena Park with the furniture pushed back against the walls.

Wherever it is, the answer is the same three words: traditional, modest and comfortable.

A puja is generally not the occasion for your biggest lehenga or your most glamorous reception outfit. More conservative Indian clothing is usually the better choice — and that does not mean dull.

The puja outfit formula

Aim for	How much
Traditional	5 / 5
Modest	5 / 5
Comfortable	5 / 5
Heavy embellishment	2 / 5
Party or glamour	2 / 5

Traditional, colourful and beautiful is completely fine. The idea is simply that a puja is a religious setting first.

What do women wear to a puja?

Three modest ceremony outfits with their parts labelled: a cream anarkali with dupatta, a dark green salwar kameez with dupatta, and a dusty pink sharara set

All three of these work for a puja. Left to right: anarkali, salwar kameez, sharara set.

Salwar kameez is the easiest and safest answer. A tunic over loose trousers with a dupatta: good coverage, easy to sit in, and equally at home in a temple or a living room. If you want one decision instead of five, make it this one.

A churidar or Punjabi suit is the same idea with a slimmer trouser. Traditional and polished, festive without tipping into formal.

An anarkali suits a puja that is attached to a bigger family celebration. Go elegant rather than bridal — the floor-length flowing shape is lovely and does not need heavy work to earn its place.

A saree is always appropriate. For a daytime religious setting, lean towards a traditional silk, cotton or georgette rather than something very heavy or very shiny.

A sharara can work if the overall look stays modest. It is worth saying plainly that a low-cut, heavily embellished party sharara is not the default puja choice.

If you are not sure which of these is which, we have a guide to the six silhouettes with photos of each.

What should men wear to a puja?

A cream kurta pajama on a mannequin, worn under a plum printed Nehru vest with brown shoes

Kurta pajama, with a vest if the puja is part of a bigger celebration.

Kurta pajama is the answer for most men, most of the time. Traditional, respectful, and comfortable enough to sit through a long ceremony without thinking about it once.

Add a vest or Nehru jacket when the puja is attached to a wedding, an engagement, a housewarming or another larger event. It is one step up and takes ten seconds to decide.

A sherwani is usually more than the occasion needs, unless the event around the puja is genuinely formal. The men's guide has the whole ladder if you want to see where each piece sits.

The biggest thing to think about: coverage

If you take one thing from this page, take this one.

For women, that generally means avoiding very low necklines, very high slits and anything cut small. Sleeves are welcome. A dupatta is worth keeping with the outfit rather than leaving it in the car — it is useful for shoulders, and at some ceremonies people put it over their head.

For men, a kurta pajama solves this without any thought at all.

None of this means beige. Wear colour, wear embroidery, look like you made an effort. It is the cut that wants to be modest, not the personality of the thing.

You may be sitting on the floor

Plenty of pujas involve sitting cross-legged on the floor, sometimes for an hour, sometimes longer. This is the single most useful thing to picture before you buy anything.

So the test is: can I sit on the floor in this, comfortably, for an hour? Very tight, very short and very structured all fail that test. Salwar kameez, churidar suits and sarees all pass it easily.

You will probably take your shoes off

Many temples and most Hindu homes ask you to leave your shoes at the door before you go into the prayer area. Wear something you can slip on and off without sitting down to deal with buckles, and give a thought to what is on your feet underneath.

Do I need to cover my head?

For a Hindu puja, generally not — though customs vary by family and by temple, and some people do cover their heads out of respect. If you have a dupatta with you, you have the option either way.

A Sikh gurdwara is different: heads are covered there, by everyone, without exception. Worth knowing which one you are going to.

What colours can I wear to a puja?

Bright and traditional colours are natural choices for a celebratory puja. Yellow, orange, red, pink, green, blue, cream — all of them are at home in a prayer room.

On black and white, avoid thinking in absolute rules, because they vary. As a general steer: for a typical celebratory puja, a first-time guest is usually on safer ground choosing colour over an all-black look. White can be entirely appropriate in some religious contexts and carry different associations in others, so it depends on the occasion.

If the puja is part of a festival, the colour conventions of that festival apply too — there is more on that in our Diwali guide, which covers the Lakshmi Puja.

How dressy should I be?

More traditional than trendy. More modest than glamorous.

Beyond that it scales with the occasion. A puja attached to a wedding will run dressier than a small Tuesday-evening puja at home. A festival puja is more festive than a quiet one. But in most cases you do not need to look like you are going to the reception afterwards.

A navy pre-draped sari with a sequinned blouse displayed beside a matching navy sequinned kurta worn with white trousers, both on mannequins

Save this one for the sangeet or the reception — sequins are doing a different job.

What if I am not Indian?

You can absolutely wear Indian clothing to a puja, and most hosts are pleased when guests do. A simple kurta, a salwar suit, an anarkali or a saree makes dressing appropriately easier rather than harder, because these clothes are already cut for the setting.

You do not need to know the names of every style before you shop. That is exactly the kind of customer we help every day. There is more on this in can I wear Indian clothes as a non-Indian guest?

Is it puja or pooja?

Both spellings refer to the same thing. Puja is the more common transliteration from Sanskrit and Hindi; pooja is just as widely used and spells out the same long vowel sound.

So whether you searched what to wear to a puja, what to wear to a pooja, what to wear to a puja ceremony or what to wear to a pooja ceremony, you are asking the same question, and the answer is the same: traditional, modest and comfortable.

Shopping for a puja outfit around Artesia

If you are in the Los Angeles area, this is an easy errand rather than a project. We are at 18507 Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, in the middle of Little India, on the same boulevard as several of the temples people around here attend — a few minutes down the road from Norwalk.

A good number of the invitations we see are for BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills — the large hand-carved mandir on Fairfield Ranch Road, which BAPS itself calls the Los Angeles mandir. It is roughly twenty-five miles east of us, and it is the one people most often name when they tell us where they are going.

That matters more than it sounds, because pujas repeat. A housewarming this month, a naming ceremony in the spring, Diwali in the autumn, a wedding puja next year. A good salwar kameez or a simple silk saree earns its keep several times over, which is not true of a reception outfit.

Free parking in our own lot behind the store, walk-ins welcome, no appointment needed. We are minutes from Cerritos and Norwalk, under ten miles from Long Beach, and a short drive from Buena Park, Anaheim and the rest of Orange County. There is more on shopping Pioneer Boulevard if you have not been down here before.

Going to a puja and still not sure what to wear?

Bring the invitation, the text message or just the details to us in Artesia. Tell us what kind of puja it is, where it is being held, whether it is part of a wedding or another celebration, and what time of day it starts.

We will help you find something that feels traditional, respectful and comfortable. You do not need to arrive knowing whether you want a salwar kameez, a churidar, an anarkali or a saree, and you do not need to know your size in any of them.

Bring us the event. We will help you work out the outfit. Questions first? We are on Instagram at @loveleensari.

Item added to your cart