Black Dupion Silk Saree with Zari Border and Woven Pallu – Bhagalpuri

Kajal

Black through the body, scattered with small woven motifs in red and grey, and a broad copper zari band running the length of both sides. The pallu turns to natural sand — woven diamonds in black and orange set across it, finished with bands of red and black and a knotted fringe.

About the weave

Dupion silk is woven from double cocoons — two silkworms spinning together — which produces an irregular yarn with slubs running through it. It gives a crisp hand and a sharp, changeable lustre: it reflects rather than glows, and the slubs catch light in lines across the surface.

Everything on this saree is woven in, not printed. The small crosses on the body and the diamonds on the pallu are extra-weft work, each one thrown in by hand as the cloth was made — turn the pallu over and you can see them worked from the other side. They sit far apart and slightly unevenly, which is what keeps them from reading as a machine repeat.

The copper zari is what holds the two halves together. Against black it reads as warmth rather than glitter; against the sand pallu it almost disappears.

What it's for

Black with copper is the least ceremonial combination in this collection, and the most useful. It carries a working day, an evening, a function where you would rather not be the brightest thing in the room. The pallu does all the talking, and only when you turn around.

Details

• Fabric: Dupion silk
• Colour: Black with natural sand, copper zari and red
• Border: Broad copper zari, both sides
• Body: Scattered woven butis in red and grey
• Pallu: Natural sand with woven diamond motifs, red and black bands, knotted fringe
• Saree length: 5.5 m · Width: 1.10 m
• Blouse piece: 0.80 m, unstitched
• Package contains: 1 saree with blouse piece
• Wash care: Dry clean only

On handloom

Every metre of this saree passed through a pit loom worked by hand and foot. No motor is involved anywhere in the process — the weaver sets the pace, and the cloth carries that pace in it. Bhagalpur has been weaving silk this way for generations, and what comes off its looms does not resemble what comes off the looms at Varanasi or Chanderi. The yarn is different, the water is different, and so are the hands.

On colour and variation

These sarees are dyed in small lots and woven one at a time, so no two are alike — and no single piece is quite uniform from end to end. You may find the shade deepening a little along the length, a heavier slub where the yarn ran thick, or an edge that wanders by a thread. None of that is damage. Screens also render colour differently, so expect some drift from what you see here.