Ten fabrics, and how each one behaves.

The one that holds weight.

Woven

Bengaluru, Kanchipuram, Murshidabad

In the hand

Dense, cool, faintly heavy

Silk takes embroidery better than anything else we work with — it can carry dense zardozi or gota without puckering, and it falls in weighted folds rather than floating. Most of our heavier festive pieces are silk for exactly that reason.

Sheer, and holds its shape.

Woven

Woven from tightly twisted silk yarn

In the hand

Crisp, papery, weightless

The stiffness is in the twist of the yarn, not in any finish, so it survives washing and keeps standing away from the body. Sleeves and dupattas in organza hold their volume all evening; embroidery on it appears to float, because you can see through the ground.

Glass-clear, and very light.

Woven

Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh

In the hand

Fine, airy, faintly glossy

Woven from unbleached, undegummed yarn, which is what gives Chanderi its particular transparency — the sheen sits in the fibre rather than on the surface. It is light enough for summer and formal enough for a wedding, which is a rare pair.

Metal in the weave.

Woven

Varanasi and Chanderi

In the hand

Papery, cool, reflective

Fine metallic thread is woven into the ground itself, so the shine belongs to the cloth rather than to anything added on top. It changes completely under different light — daylight reads it as pale, lamplight makes it burn. Photographs rarely do it justice.

Falls, never holds.

Woven

Woven from crêpe-twist yarn

In the hand

Grainy, matte, fluid

The crêpe twist gives a slightly pebbled surface and almost no structure, so georgette drapes close to the body and moves constantly. It is the most forgiving cloth we cut — it skims rather than clings, and it does not crease.

Barely there.

Woven

Fine plain-weave silk

In the hand

Whisper-light, slightly rough

Lighter and sheerer than georgette, with the same fluid fall. It takes hand embroidery only where the work is light — sequin, cutdana, fine resham — because anything heavier drags the ground out of shape.

Woven, not printed.

Woven

Varanasi

In the hand

Substantial, ridged on the reverse

A brocade in which the motif is built on the loom in zari as the cloth is made, not applied afterwards. Turn a Banarasi over and you can read the whole pattern in floats of thread on the back — the surest way to tell it from a print.

Colour with depth in it.

Woven

A Mughal-court cloth, now woven across India

In the hand

Dense, warm, directional

The pile catches light differently depending on which way you brush it, which is why velvet colour looks deeper than flat cloth. It is a winter fabric and a heavy one, so we keep the embroidery on it deliberate rather than all-over.

Smooth face, matte back.

Woven

A weave, not a fibre

In the hand

Cool, slippery, weighty

Satin is a way of weaving — long floats on the surface that reflect light evenly — rather than a material. It gives the cleanest shine of anything here, and shows every stitch, so the work on it has to be exact.

For the days in between.

Woven

Woven across India

In the hand

Dry, breathable, soft with wear

The everyday cloth, and the one that improves with washing. We use it where a piece is meant to be worn often rather than kept for occasions — the embroidery on it is usually resham and gota rather than anything metallic.