Khinkhwab Diaries

What you are really paying for in a Banarasi — how silk, zari, weave and labour add up, and how to read the price of a saree with confidence.

Khokhloma gold, Gzhel blue and the pearl-sewn kokoshnik — the folk and court crafts of Russia, the painters who recorded them, and the great fair where the fur road met...

Why a handloom Banarasi costs more than a powerloom one — the months of skilled human work, the real silk and the zari behind the price.

Safavid silk, the Ardabil Carpet and the boteh that became the paisley — the crafts of Iran, and why half the vocabulary of a Banaras loom is Persian.

Colour within the gold — how Banarasi weavers fill their motifs with jewel-bright resham, borrowing the jeweller's enamel art, and how it differs from rangkat.

Bukhara gold embroidery, Margilan cloud-tied silk and the suzani — the crafts of Uzbekistan, and the road that carried them all the way to Banaras.

Jaal or jangla? Both cover a saree all over — but a jangla is the densest, wildest, most jungle-like jaal of all. The difference, explained.

Nasrid silk, lustre tiles and Toledo gold — the crafts of Spain, from the looms of the Alhambra to the court that Velázquez and Goya painted.

Colour-blocking on the handloom — how a Rangkat saree's ground shifts from one colour to the next, joined block by block, in one of the rarest Banarasi weaves.

Hereke carpets, İznik tiles and Ottoman silk — the imperial crafts of Turkey, where loom and kiln reached courtly perfection.

The satin-weave Banarasi — dense, smooth and clean-backed — and the three-brothers legend behind its unusual name.

Murano glass, Florentine leather and Venetian silk — the workshops and centuries-old crafts that made Italy a byword for beautiful things.