Blonde Girl Wearing Flower Blouse

Office dress codes usually prohibit cropped, sleeveless cholis; similarly, women in the armed forces, when wearing a sari uniform, don a half-sleeve shirt tucked in at the waist.
Some Western women have started wearing the choli as part of their belly dance costume. They typically wear backless cholis (held together with strings) so that the audience can see a dancer's bare back as she sways.
Backless cholis have become a fashion in India after the movie Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!, in which Madhuri Dixit wears one.