Handloom Cotton Dupatta

Details

A plain-weave cotton dupatta, 2.5 m by 42 in finished, woven on pit looms in Bhuj, Kachchh, at 90 GSM in 40s single, about 52 ends by 48 picks to the inch, with a hand-knotted fringe at both ends. Light enough to drape in two folds without bulk at the shoulder, dense enough not to go transparent in daylight. Powerloom cloth sold as handloom is one of the largest frauds in Indian textiles, which is why the Government of India created the Handloom Mark, administered by the Textiles Committee. A dupatta is where the fraud is easiest, because at 90 GSM and two and a half metres nobody is sending it to a laboratory. Every piece here carries the mark. The other thing worth checking on plant-dyed cloth is what the dye was fixed with: chrome and other metal-salt mordants give a natural dye the fastness of a synthetic one, and they put heavy metals against your neck to do it. Ours is alum, and the fastness grades below are what alum actually gives.

• Handloom Mark on every piece, pit-loom woven in Bhuj, Kachchh
• 100 percent cotton by microscopy at a measured 90 GSM, no polyester
• Natural indigo, madder root, myrobalan and pomegranate rind
• Alum mordant only, no chrome, no copper, no tin, no chemical fixative
• No azo dye and no optical brightener
• No starch loading, so the body you feel is the cloth and not a finish that washes out
• Hand-knotted fringe at both ends, not machine-serged, so you can re-knot it yourself
• Plant dye is less fast than a reactive dye and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It gives up colour for two washes, settles about a half shade softer, and wants washing alone until it does.