Beige & Red Hand Painted Madhubani Tussar Ghicha Silk Unstitched Suit

A three-piece unstitched suit set in Bhagalpuri tussar ghicha silk, painted
by hand in the Mithila tradition — coral red and charcoal on an undyed beige
ground, with a plain tan bottom to finish the set.

The kurta panel carries a full painted yoke: a deep scalloped neckline
outlined in black and filled with leaf, bud and lotus forms, with a bird
resting at the centre point. The dupatta is painted at both ends with a
flowering pot sending up branches — the tree-of-life composition that recurs
through Mithila work — bordered by running bands of lotus rosettes and paired
leaves. Small single motifs are scattered sparingly across the open ground of
both pieces.

Two techniques sit side by side here, as they do in traditional Mithila
painting. The black forms are worked in kachni, built up from fine parallel
hatching rather than solid colour. The red forms are bharni, filled in flat.
The contrast between the hatched and the filled shapes is what gives the
painting its depth.

Ghicha yarn is drawn from the outer layers of the tussar cocoon and spun by
hand, so the thread comes off the spindle uneven — thicker in one stretch,
finer in the next. Woven up, that unevenness reads across the cloth as fine
slubs and soft striations, with a matte lustre rather than a shine. The beige
is the natural colour of the cocoon itself; nothing has been dyed.

DETAILS
Fabric: Pure handloom tussar ghicha silk (kurta and dupatta), plain tan bottom
Kurta panel: 2.50 m
Dupatta: 2.25 m
Bottom: 2.00 m
Work: Hand painted Madhubani — kachni and bharni, coral red and charcoal
Colour: Natural undyed beige with tan bottom
Dupatta finish: Fringed at both ends
Care: Dry clean only. Store folded in cotton muslin, away from direct sun.

Each piece is painted individually, so small variations between one set and
the next are part of the work rather than a fault.

CRAFT NOTE
Tussar ghicha is spun and woven in and around Bhagalpur in Bihar, on pit and
frame looms worked by hand. Madhubani painting comes from the Mithila region
of the same state — a wall-and-floor tradition carried by women for
generations, moved onto cloth and paper in the last century.