It's the old way of doing it though. Pre washing machine clothes wash tended to be underwear only, and brush and air the rest. Partly because washing was a more brutal process - boiling, wringing etc that the outer layers couldn't handle.
Wool and silk doesn't like being boiled or wrung, or even heavily agitated. Underwear didn't need to stay in shape, outerwear did. Cotton is far more tolerant of violent washing.
India's climate would, no doubt, see far less use of wool and multiple layers, far more of lighter weight cottons than Europe. Southern Europe probably somewhere in between. :)