Look closer
Zoom in far enough and the pattern stops being a pattern.
Three steps, one saree, the same angle — drape, border, thread.
A Dhakai Jamdani saree.
Its border carries a motif built by hand.
Each motif is added thread by thread, on the loom. There is no pattern card.
Stand-in photography. The three-stage zoom set — one saree, one angle, three distances — is item 1 on the shot list.
See the sareesThe dye palette
Start with the colour.
Every dye here comes from a root, a leaf or a rhizome. Pick one and the sarees below follow.
Featured sarees
All sarees
The Saree Atlas
Where these weaves come from, and how to tell them apart.
An encyclopaedia of the weaves we buy, written by the people who buy them.
- Kerala
- Applique
- Telangana
- Pochampally Ikkat Silk
From the Journal
All writingSaree Chronicles
Why do Bengali women wear red and white?
Watch any Bengali character in an Indian film. Look at a Durga Puja poster. Scroll through old family photos from bengal. The woman in the frame is almost wearing the same thing. A white saree with a deep red border. Red and white bangles on her wrists. A streak of vermillion in her hair, and a round red bindi.
Saree Chronicles
Mangalgiri cotton silk: a handloom saree that works on an ordinary day
There is a saree a lot of women keep near the front of the wardrobe. Not the heavy one saved for weddings. The one that goes on for a Monday meeting, a school event, or lunch with an old friend. For many, that saree is a Mangalgiri cotton silk.