Lotus Border Soft Silk Saree

A soft silk saree worked as a continuous floral jaal — slender gold zari vines running across the whole body, with lotus buds set into them at intervals. The buds are the reason to look twice: each one is woven in meenakari, where coloured silk is carried alongside the zari so a single motif comes out in pink, saffron, teal and ivory rather than flat gold. It is slow work on the loom, and it is what separates this from a plain zari butti saree.

The border carries a repeating lotus motif along both edges. The pallu opens the same lotus out at full scale, set among paisley and peacock forms, and finishes in a tasselled edge.

What you are buying

• Soft silk saree, approximately 5.5 metres, with a running blouse piece
• Allover floral jaal in gold zari across the full body
• Meenakari lotus buds — multi-colour silk woven in with the zari, not printed on
• Lotus border along both edges, opened out at full scale through the pallu
• Tasselled pallu edge
• Thirteen colourways

About the running blouse

This saree comes with a running blouse piece, which means the blouse fabric is cut from the same roll as the saree body and matches it rather than contrasting with it. If you want a contrast blouse, the border colour is usually the one to pick up.

Honestly about provenance

This saree is handwoven and curated by us. It does not come from our own Kolkata embroidery workshop, and we will not dress it up as something it isn't. We also describe the fabric the way our weaver describes it to us — soft silk — rather than claiming a fibre percentage we have not had tested.

Care

Dry clean only. Store folded in cotton, and refold along a different line every few months so the zari does not crease into one permanent fold.