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Buying kurtas and kurtis from India when you live abroad

The thing most people abroad actually wear, rather than the thing they wear twice a year — and the hardest Indian garment to buy well anywhere else.

Yes — you can buy kurtas and kurtis from Indian shops even if they do not deliver to your country. India Rabbit gives you a free delivery address in India. You order to that address as an ordinary domestic customer, we receive and hold the parcel free for 30 days, combine it with anything else you buy, and forward the lot to you.

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Why this is hard to buy where you are

Occasion wear is the clothing diaspora shops stock, because it is what carries a markup. Everyday cotton kurtas are the opposite: low margin, sold on range and fit, and almost nobody outside India carries them in any depth. A shop in New Jersey or Wembley might have a rail of twenty; an Indian retailer has several thousand across sleeve length, neckline, fabric weight and season. That gap is why this is the largest single thing people abroad look for and cannot find.

Where to buy it

Shop	What they are good for
FabIndia	The reference point for handloom cotton kurtas. Consistent cuts year to year, which matters when you are reordering a size that worked.
W and Aurelia	Mass-market Indian womenswear with a wide everyday kurti range and reliable sizing across seasons.
Biba	Strong on printed and festive kurtas, and one of the labels people search for by name from abroad.
Ajio and Myntra	The widest selection of all, because every label sells through them. Best for comparing cuts and fabrics before committing.
Amazon.in	Where the smaller and regional labels are, often at half the price of the same garment in a diaspora shop. If any of these cannot deliver to you, your Indian address settles it.

Whether a given Indian retailer ships to your country changes, and varies by country, and is not worth researching. Use your India Rabbit address at checkout and it is an ordinary domestic delivery from their side.

What to check before you order

Indian sizing runs smaller than UK or US sizing, often by a full size and sometimes two. Work from the garment measurements in the listing, not the letter size.
Kurta length is the measurement people get wrong most often. Listings give it in inches from the shoulder — measure a kurta you already own and compare, rather than guessing from the model photograph.
Cotton, cotton blend, rayon and viscose all photograph identically and behave completely differently. Rayon drapes and creases; cotton breathes and shrinks slightly on the first wash.
Buy two or three at once. The per-garment shipping cost falls sharply when they travel together, and a single kurta rarely justifies a parcel on its own.
Kurta sets that include a bottom and dupatta are sold as one item but weigh two or three times what the kurta alone does. Worth knowing before you fill a basket.

Weight, customs and getting it here intact

Weight

A cotton kurta is 200-350g. A kurta with palazzo and dupatta is 600-900g. Six to eight everyday kurtas fit inside a consolidated box before weight becomes the limiting factor, which makes this the best value-per-kilo category we handle.

Volume

Cotton compresses well and we repack it out of the retailer's boxes, so volumetric weight is rarely what you end up paying on. Heavily embroidered or padded pieces are the exception.

Customs

Ready-made garments are a routine customs category, assessed on declared value against your country's threshold. A box of everyday kurtas usually sits well below the level where duty becomes significant. Check what your destination allows.

Condition

Cotton kurtas arrive folded as the retailer packed them and press out in minutes. Anything with mirror work or beading we pack separately so it does not catch on the rest of the box.

Work out the exact cost to your country

Where we send it

Pick your country for transit times and customs notes.

Questions

What size kurta should I order from an Indian site?

Do not order by letter size. Every listing gives a bust and length measurement in inches; measure a garment you already wear and match those numbers. Indian sizing typically runs one size smaller than UK or US labels, so an M abroad is frequently an L or XL on an Indian site.

Is it actually cheaper than buying from an Indian shop where I live?

On a single garment, often not once shipping is counted. On four or five in one box, substantially — and the selection is not comparable in the first place. The saving comes from consolidation, not from any one item.

Can I return something that does not fit?

Not easily, which is why the measurements matter more here than anywhere else on this site. Read the size chart properly and it rarely comes up.

Can I order from several different Indian sites at once?

Yes, and it is the normal way to use the service. Each retailer delivers to the same Indian address, we hold everything free for 30 days, and it all leaves as one box.

Do kurtas shrink?

Pure cotton shrinks slightly on the first wash, which the better listings account for in their measurements. Rayon and blends do not, but they crease more. Neither is a reason to size up on its own.

Order it like you live in Kerala

Your free Indian address takes a minute to set up and works on your very next order. We hold parcels free for 30 days so you can combine them into one box.

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