Khinkhwab Diaries

In the hill courts of Himachal, embroiderers did something close to magic: they turned the miniature paintings of the Pahari masters into thread — on cloth that has no wrong...

Hold a Chanderi up to the light and you can almost see through it — a cloth so fine it has long been called woven air. ✨ Fun fact: Chanderi...

Some cloth is dyed in an afternoon. Ajrakh is coaxed into being over weeks — printed, dyed, washed and printed again, until indigo and madder settle into a depth no...

Long before a pattern is dyed into cloth, it is tied into it — thousands of tiny knots, each pinched and bound by hand. This is the art of bandhani....

Real zari vs imitation, and pure silk vs art silk and mercerised cotton — a plain-language buyer's guide to telling what your Banarasi is really made of, with simple at-home...

From the naqsha design map and Jacquard punch cards to silk degumming, warping, weaving and kundi finishing — the full journey of how a handwoven Banarasi saree is really made.

From the scattered buti to the magnificent shikargah hunting scene, here's a friendly field guide to the classic motifs woven into a Banarasi saree — and what each one means.

Zardozi is the gold-thread embroidery of Banaras. What it is, the threads used — salma, dabka, sitara, kalabattu — and how it differs from aari (hath-ari) work.

A plain-language guide to the great Banarasi weaves — kimkhab brocade, amru, tanchoi, jangla, tissue (ab-e-rawan) and cutwork — what each one is and how to tell them apart.

Kadwa or cutwork? The two ways a Banarasi saree is woven — what kadwa (kadhua) weaving is, how it differs from cutwork, and why it costs more.

From the fine cloth that wrapped the Buddha to the looms still working in Varanasi today — the long, astonishing story behind every Banarasi saree.

When you think of Banarasi sarees, the first image that comes to mind is colour — a deep crimson bridal saree glowing with zari, a royal blue drape with floral...