Midriff school's student planner and handbook which includes "clothing that reveals the midriff". In 2004, the Board of Education of Meriden, Connecticut, brought a dress code that banned shirts, blouses that expose the top of the shoulders, haltertops, spaghetti tops, and any clothing that exposed the waist, midriff or hips. Indian women have traditionally worn saris that bare the midriff, especially South Indian women. The gap on the midriff between sari and the choli presented the elegance of a woman's graceful sway of her gait. A possible cultural justification is that in ancient Indian tradition, the navel of the God Vishnu
Kerala sari his paintings, the Indian subcontinent was shown as a mother wearing a flowing nivi saree. Kerala sari Kerala sari (Set-sari) () is a clothing of women in the Indian state of Kerala. It is worn as a garment that closely resembles the "mundum neriyathum" though it is not considered a true mundum neriyathum by classic definition. This is because the Kerala sari consists of a single piece of cloth while a traditional mundum neriyathum consists of a two-piece cloth. Otherwise, the Kerala sari closely resembles the mundum neriyathum and is often worn by Malayali women as a quasi mundum neriyathum.