Handloom Cotton Straight Kurta

Details

A straight-cut kurta in 120 GSM handloom cotton woven on pit looms in Bhuj, Kachchh, Gujarat, in a medium 40s count so the cloth stays crisp for a season and then softens without going limp. It carries the Handloom Mark, and that tag is doing real work here rather than decorating the label. The cheat is powerloom cloth sold as handloom, which is one of the largest frauds in Indian textiles. A power loom makes cloth that looks close enough on a rack at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the wage, and there is no way for a shopper to tell from a photograph, which is exactly why the Handloom Mark exists. This kurta carries it. The second cheat is the fibre: polyester blended into cotton at 20 or 30 percent is invisible, cheap and everywhere, so composition here is a tested number. The third is weight, where cloth called 120 GSM weighs 90. The fourth is shrinkage, and it is the one that ruins the purchase, because a kurta that was never pre-shrunk drops a full size on the first wash and no size chart in the world can save it.

• Handloom Mark tagged, against powerloom cloth sold as handloom
• 100 percent cotton, confirmed by microscopy, no polyester blended in
• 120 GSM, measured, in a 40s count plain weave
• Pre-shrunk, residual shrinkage under 2 percent, tested to ISO 6330
• Natural indigo vat, azo-free, screened for banned aromatic amines
• No optical brighteners, so the ground is an unbleached cream rather than a blue-white
• No starch or sizing loaded in to fake body, residual size under 1 percent The honest part: natural indigo gives up colour for the first two washes, and that is how you know it is a vat and not a print. Wash it alone twice. Wet rubbing fastness is grade 3, so a damp indigo kurta will mark a white bag. Handloom cloth also has a slightly irregular pick density and a selvedge that is not machine-perfect. Those are the loom, not a defect.