The look of the girl ponchos is comfortable and comforting. In fact this season, the Indian women are demurely wrapping up rather than baring all. These ponchos cover all the right areas hiding the most worrisome midsection figure flaws. The sleeveless girl ponchos are easy to whip on and off as the temperature demands.

Ponchos are in fact sometimes warmer than coats because they trap heat by keeping the arms close to the body. The girl ponchos are popular simply because they are so easy to wear. They go with everything and one size fits all, and it's never too tight. Of course all of these arguments can be dismissed as myths.

You can't quite call the poncho practical, and sometimes it does tend to look ridiculous. Most of the ponchos that are available on the fashion streets of the various cities in India are flimsy, assembly-line creations of crocheted rayon, nylon, acrylic. And a clumpy, tangled fringe often borders most of them. Another problem with the girl ponchos is that it's a simple rule of fashion that one-size-fits-all, like elastic waistbands or sandals, is never a good idea. Unless the fabric is exquisite or the wearer is excessively thin, the girl poncho's large sizes makes most women look bulky and misshapen.

Another thing is that the poncho is hardly a new phenomenon. Its has been around since the the late '60s and early '70s. The Victorian cape of the '60s, the '90s pashmina, and the poncho are all attempts to solve an old and ongoing problem of how to stay fashionably warm without completely obscuring one's clothes. This means that the wrap's next incarnation is just around the corner.