Wine and Royal Blue Dupion Silk Saree with Woven Butis – Bhagalpuri

Nayika

A deep wine body, and then the pallu turns royal blue — saturated, lustrous, scattered with small woven butis in ivory and magenta. Between the two, a border striped in gold zari, red and yellow, fine lines running the whole length.

About the weave

The butis are extra-weft work: small paired squares joined by a thread of contrast yarn, thrown in by hand as the pallu was woven, so they sit inside the cloth rather than on it. Turn the pallu over and you can see them worked from the other side. They're set widely and slightly irregularly, which is what keeps them from reading as a machine repeat.

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, and it's what makes this blue as intense as it is: the slubs catch light in lines across the surface so the colour reads bright rather than heavy.

What it's for

Wine and royal blue is a bold, slightly old-fashioned pairing, and it looks entirely deliberate rather than accidental. This is a festive saree — a wedding function, a reception, a Diwali evening — and it holds its own under artificial light, which is when the zari stripes earn their place.

Details

• Fabric: Dupion Silk
• Colour: Wine with royal blue
• Weave: Extra-weft woven butis
• Body: Plain wine
• Border: Striped in gold zari, red and yellow, both sides
• Pallu: Royal blue with ivory and magenta butis, knotted fringe
• Blouse piece: unstitched, 0.8 m
• Saree length: 5.5 m | Width: 1.1 m 
• Care: Dry clean only. Store wrapped in cotton or muslin, refold along a different line every few months.

A note on handloom

Each piece is woven individually, so slight irregularities in the slub and variation in the spacing of the butis are characteristic of the craft rather than defects. Colour may vary a little from your screen.