Diwali 2018 Shopping Tips: Ways to Identify Original Indian Handloom Sari This Festive Season
With handlooms making way in every woman's closet, it's important to identify if you are buying the right product or not.
The festive season is nearby which means it is the time to go ethnic shopping. The most awaited festival of Diwali will begin in the next month. Festival calls for traditional fashion and lot of women today opt for sarees. The handloom sarees especially are light in weight and look elegant. Ditching the fancy embroidered and gaudy colours, handloom sarees are simple with less of patterns. But the simplicity will stand out in your festive look for Diwali 2018. But with the growing demand for handloom dresses and sarees, there are imitations available in the market. These are not of a good quality and come at a cheaper cost. They may look the same but there is a lot of difference. So it is important to be able to distinguish the original weaves from the fake ones. Diwali 2018 Gift Ideas: Surprise Your Family and Friends With These Deepavali Goodies.
With handlooms making way in every woman's closet, it's important to identify if you are buying the right product or not. Jawahar Singh, Founder of Avishya.com and Sunita Budhiraja, Founder of Six Yards and 365 Days forum, list some tips to identify an Original Indian Handloom.
- Look closely at the weaves of the sari. Handloom weaves will definitely have some small imperfections and discrepancies. If every square inch looks exactly the same, it is unlikely to be an authentic handloom.
- A handcrafted product will always be special because every piece is 'one of a kind' - whether a beautiful painting, sculpture or a handloom sari. Also, the inherent minor imperfections & inconsistencies only add to the beauty and uniqueness of each product.
- Turn the sari around and look at the reverse side of the prints (or embroidery) appearing on the front of the sari, especially the pallu area. In a printed handloom sari you will see the exact mirror image of the prints in front.
- In a powerloom sari, both sides are printed separately and there will be differences. In the case of a hand embroidered sari on the reverse side, all the threads will be snipped off neatly by hand and there will be a smooth finish soft to the skin.
- In the case of a machine embroidered sari, the threads will be hanging loosely or will be patched together as a 'float' which is uncomfortable to wear.
- Powerloom saris will have a perfectly ‘papered over' or ‘ironed out' feel and therefore will not drape around the curves of the body. They will slip and slide all over the body.
- You can check this by trying to drape at least the pallu over yourself. In the case of printed or block printed saris observe the pattern and shapes of the motifs and designs across the sari.
These are some simple tips which every woman should be aware of while going ethnic shopping. Especially while shopping for handloom weaves, take some extra time and carefully look at patterns, finishing, patches before you make the purchase. Happy Diwali shopping to you! (With IANS inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 26, 2018 09:08 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).