sunset – Pleats N Pallu

The markers of a true blue handloom jamdani from Bengal

A set of jamdani sarees framed by a quintessential Sydney harbour sunset…

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

In these photos Koel (in the cream saree) is wearing a West Bengal Jamdani with a blouse made out of a noil silk stole and I am wearing a Dhakai jamdani with a block print top.

We both prefer the West Bengal taant jamdani because we don’t like the loose/coarser weave of the fabric from Bangladesh and find their motifs less delicate.

Both of us are also very picky about the design elements we like on our jamdanis, preferring the more intricate traditional patterns to more new age innovations.

The highly skilled master weavers of the Basak community moved from Tangail in Bangladesh to West Bengal during the 1947 partition of India as well as the 1971 war for Bangladesh’s freedom from Pakistan. They predominantly settled in and around Kalna in Purba Bardhaman district and Santipur in Nadia district, well-known for traditional handloom fabrics. Weavers from this community now produce some of the most intricate jamdani textiles.

The jamdani textiles incorporate an extra weft insertion technique which means that with this procedure, artistic motifs are produced by a non-structural weft, in addition to the standard weft that holds the warp threads together. The standard weft creates a fine, sheer fabric while the supplementary weft with thicker threads adds the intricate patterns to it.

Each of the supplementary weft motifs are added manually by interlacing yarn with fine bamboo sticks using individual spools.

A handloom textile is exactly what the word suggests: a hand (or foot)-operated loom is used to weave textiles without the use of electricity – on either pit or frame looms. It is the oldest textile production technique which goes back more than 2,000 years in India.

If you are keen to know more about this weave please check out my previous posts featuring vintage jamdani sarees here, here and here. In this post below, I have tried to list a few ways to ensure you are buying the real deal and can tell the difference between an actual handloom jamdani and the many inferior powerloom versions floating in the marketplace:

Carefully check the back of the fabric: If you want to recognise a true blue jamdani always check the back of the fabric for parallel looping lines from the supplementary weft threads of the motifs. The weaver cuts the extra weft yarn to the length that they will need and then the same thread curls pulled back and forth. After each pull, the loom is pedalled, adding an extra weft and tightening the design.

In a fake jamdanis, the edges of the motif are cut with a scissors and don’t interlace with each other. So if you see threads hanging loose/sticking out at the back, it means that the saree is an imitation and not the real deal, which also means it is not hand woven . It is not handloom.

2. Pay attention to the finishing of the motifs: Look very closely at the extra weft designs, they should have sharply defined edges, the front and the back should be almost identical.

Also with authentic handloom jamdanis, the top part that is meant to be tucked-in, is plain and does not have the border motifs.

And the motifs are equally smooth both at the front and the back, roughness at the back and edges are common in the imitations.

3. Examine the fabric and yarn closely: A true blue jamdani is made only with cotton yarn, so be very wary of phrases like resham, soft silk, silk cotton etcetera. Insist on a burn test if necessary. I have come across vintage mulberry silk jamdani sarees from over three decades ago, they are not commonly found anymore unless someone specifically creates a collection.

If your heart hankers for a silk jamdani, I’d recommend getting a mulberry silk Moirang Phee from Manipur, the weavers there are mostly female and use the supplementary weft technique as well.

4. Buy in person not online: Unless you are an expert or really familiar with the seller and trust them implicitly, do not buy these kinds of sarees online until you are confident. I have recently been badly burnt by an unscrupulous online reseller who has sold me a damaged piece that she now refuses to refund.

5. Touch and feel the textile: True blue handlooms have texture, the extra weft designs create a characteristic uneven-ness.

6. The best marker is the price: If you’re getting a jamdani saree with intricate motifs all over for very little money it is highly like to be a fake! These textiles are labour intensive to weave and in this case the price truly will reflect the quality.

7. Buy from state emporiums and/or reliable stores that stock jamdanis with a handloom mark: I have found many stunning jamdanis at Biswa Bangla and a few many moons ago at Tantuja. You can always insist on buying handloom certified textiles at both these and many other retailers.

There is enough academic research being published about handloom textiles, there are tonnes of books available with photos from up close that there is no excuse for any seller to get away with spreading misinformation and selling dodgy products.

Indigo block print lehenga in the winter

Another one in the long running series of dupattas that are converted into sarees and then made into lehengas …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This lehenga (also known as gaghra or chaniya or just simply a gathered skirt) used to be three dupattas that I wore as a saree for ages before realising that the number of indigo block print sarees in my wardrobe was astounding. I re-homed a few of them with other saree-enthusiasts and decided to ask the boy to make this into a lehenga/ gaghra for my birthday.

I am wearing it here with a cropped merino wrap-around top, sneakers and was carrying a wool coat to wear over it in case the temperatures dipped further. You can view more photos of this lehenga in its previous avatar as a saree in a previous post from over two years ago here.

I do tend to wear full-length gathered skirts quite a bit in my everyday outfits and definitely could do with an indigo piece. Being the crazy plant lady I am, I also quite liked the dabu printed motifs on this particular length of fabric.

Dabu printing is an elaborate traditionally unique way of dyeing and printing by which exceptional motifs are created on handwoven and machine made fabrics. The recently declared Unesco world heritage site – Jaipur, is surrounded by a number of traditional villages that comprise of predominantly block print artisanal communities.

By taking advantage of the fine desert sand of Rajasthan, generations of craftspeople have been able to create this mud-resist known as ‘dabu’.

A cold-water resist, dabu is particularly effective for blocking out areas during an indigo bath. The character of dabu and the wooden blocks used to apply it, go together to create the distinctive patterns known as dabu prints.

Block prints like these are done by instinct and don’t involve much mechanical interference and they display obvious signs of the human hand, imperfections that are a part of the timeless beauty of the craft.

What gets me completely enamoured with these fabrics is the knowledge that it involves generations of a community, a heritage built around the craft, where artisans often across religions, castes and tribes form a shared history.

I really love wearing these prints on everything from pants to dresses to sarees to skirts to work-shirts to singlets and what have you. One of my favourite items of clothing though is the traditional cotton gaghras or chaiyas that are every day wear for many nomadic tribes people in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. I love wearing them throughout the year and believe that they are the most fun as winter-wear.

Some of the ways I plan to wear this lehenga/ gaghra in the winter are listed below and I am always looking to add to this list:

Paired with a beanie, sweatshirt and chunky boots for when the temperatures hit single digits.
Worn with a merino base layer, a thick embroidered choli over it and converse hi-tops.
With a chunky cable-knit sweater, an over-size denim jacket and knee-length boots.
With a lambswool turtle-neck, a leather jacket and double sole sneakers.
With a basic merino sweater, a dupatta and a Kutchi embroidered shawl.
With a tight cashmere body suit and an angrakha or front open anarkali over it.
With a silk and wool fitted sweater, a trench coat and heeled boots.
With a merino base layer top plus leggings, a peplum top and fleece-lined booties.
As a dress, I just tie the gaghra over the bosom, wear a heavy duster cardigan over it and tall boots under.

What are your favourite ways to upcycle sarees and what is your preferred way to style a lehenga/ gaghra as the temperatures drop?

If you are keen to read about similar topics, I have previously published the first in a series of post about the various kinds of hand block printed fabrics from different parts of India, which you can find here, I have also posted another block-print-dupattas-turned saree-turned-lehenga and various ways of styling it in the warmer months here and here is a post from few years ago in a bandhani lehenga with a grey sweater.

Jamdani sarees: The good, bad and the fakes

A vintage indigo jamdani framed by a ridiculously stunning sunset at the salt pans by the Arabian sea which is a favourite haunt of migratory birds …

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

I love the ornate simplicity and the unparalleled comfort of tant jamdani sarees from West Bengal.

However, every time I wear or post photos of myself in one, I get a tonne of queries on whether the piece is a real Dhakai, with many wanting to know where to source authentic jamdanis and how to tell if a particular fabric is handwoven or machine made.

Honestly, I have just always been able to tell in photos as well as in person if a length of jamdani fabric is handwoven or not, its just something one picks up in a home where handcrafted textiles are appreciated.

It irks me to no end that these days many self-procliamed experts wear power loom replicas and give lectures on wearing handloom fabrics! Another thing that annoys me even more are sellers online selling tant jamdanis as Dhakai muslin jamdani.

Firstly, these days muslin or (mulmul in Hindi) means any lightweight, gauzy, mostly inexpensive, machine-milled cotton cloth, the word has lost all connection to the handwoven fabric that once came exclusively from Bengal.

The famed muslin of yore was a finely handspun and handwoven light cotton fabric that was woven in a specific area with locally grown crop by Bengali weavers called tantees or karigars.

Secondly, jamdani is an inlay weaving technique not a weave that is synonymous to a specific place. A supplementary weft is labouriosly added during weaving, where motifs are created by an extra weft, in addition to the standard weft that holds the warp threads together.

The standard weft creates a fine, sheer fabric while the supplementary weft, added separately by hand using fine bamboo sticks and individual spools of thicker threads adds the decorative motifs and patterns.

Jamdani on fine muslin has been synonymous with Bengal for many centuries, historically they were woven from hand spun cotton threads on a simple pitloom with no attachments of any kind, its distinguishing features being the motifs and the serrated edges or daant that give form to a large number of motifs.

Traditionally, the base fabric used to be white, grey or beige with natural dyed threads creating the supplementary weft motifs, however the delicate muslin mentioned multiple times in historical texts was a pre-colonial textile made from a cotton variety that grew only along the banks of the Meghna river near Dhaka and to its south.

Cotton harvested from Gossypium arboreum var. neglecta, known locally in Bangladesh as phuti karpas, was spun to create threads that maintained tensile strength at counts higher than any other cotton species. But phuti karpas defied transplanting to other locations, and British colonial policy eliminated it completely.

The gossamer soft, light as wind fine muslin of Dhaka hasn’t been produced for close to 400 years! Anything being sold as Dhakai muslin today is either the normal tant (cotton) or soft high count cotton or handspun as well handwoven delicate fabric or some other mix of cotton, silk and even nylon.

There are a lot of so called new-age muslin fabric out there but none of them are the original Dhakai muslin. It is for all intents and purposes extinct! Not all hope is lost though, for the past couple of years experts at the Institute of Biological Sciences, Rajshahi University (RU) have been working on reviving the famous muslin but their research is still ongoing.

Researchers working on the project have stated they will replicate the old method of weaving muslin by hand and try and use a machine to achieve the same result.

Many Hindu tantees migrated to India during and post the partition in 1947 and set up weaving units in West Bengal.

Delicate yet far less fine than the original authentic Dhakai muslin, jamdani sarees are currently hand woven in West Bengal, Bangladesh and Andhra Pradesh. I personally prefer the tant or khadi jamdanis from West Bengal over anything that comes from Bangladesh as I like hardy sarees that can be washed at home.

Currently the regional variations in jamdani include:
Dhakai Jamdani, made in and around the capital of Bangladesh.

Tangail Jamdani, woven in the Tangail district of Bangladesh.

Shantipur Jamdani, handcrafted in Shantipur, West Bengal and it is said that these sarees are similar to the Tangail jamdanis.

Dhonekali Jamdani with its origin in Dhonekali, West Bengal, these jamdani sarees are said to have a tighter weave compared to the Tangail and Shantipur varieties.

There are no written records of the various jamdani motifs and design types that are particular to Bengal but weavers colloquially know them as: the corolla butti, dhaner sheesh, bansh phool, pura phool, basher pa, golap pata, dola kata, chand, tara buti, dabutar khop, jalar naksha, hazar buti, panna hazar, kalka, butidar, duria charkhona, phulwar, naksha, belwari, nayan bahar, toradar, hazar tara mayuri, ichadar and more.

These motifs are repeated with extraordinary accuracy and remarkable precision all over jamdani sarees. Various combinations of designs are then known by different names, for eg: when the motifs are spread diagonally across the fabric it is called the tercha.

Most weaving artisans don’t even need the motifs sketched or outlined on the fabric, just a basic guide drawn on a translucent graph paper and placed underneath the warp at the beginning of the process suffices.

Differentiating between a true blue handloom jamdani and its various replicas, power loom or otherwise is quite easy.

Since the jamdani weaving is time-consuming as well as labour intensive process, sometimes even handloom weavers adopt short-cuts like weaving jamdani look-alike motifs on jacquard looms.

Another common dupe flooding the market is what they call cutwork jamdani, in which the extra weft threads are cut manually therefore they seem to call these handcrafted??!!

In these kinds of fabrics the looping of thread is made to run from selvedge to selvedge, letting it hang loose between two motifs and the extra-thread is then cut manually, making it a jamdani lookalike for the untrained eye. This is half as laborious as the authentic jamdani because picking and counting of the warp isn’t required at every motif.

A true blue jamdani is made from cotton, the motifs have sharp edges and on the reverse you can see the extra weft threads are never loose and always loop into the parallel lines of thread that create the design. Basically the front and the back are almost identical!

Previous blog posts featuring vintage jamdani sarees can be accessed here and here.