Most cloth is patterned after it is woven. The patola is patterned before — its design dyed into both the warp and the weft, thread by thread, long before it ever reaches the loom.
✨ Fun fact: A Gujarati saying goes, “Padi patole bhat, phate pan fite nahi” — the design of the patola may wear with the cloth, but its colour will never fade.
The Banarasi is our first love, but the patola of Patan is one of the few weaves in the world we hold in equal awe — for the sheer, almost impossible discipline behind it.
What is a patola?
A patola is a silk sari made by the technique of double ikat. In ikat, the threads are tie-dyed into a pattern before weaving. In double ikat — one of the rarest crafts on earth — both the lengthwise warp and the crosswise weft are separately resist-dyed, then aligned on the loom with such precision that the pattern appears only as the two meet, thread by thread. There is no room for error: a single misplaced strand throws off the whole design.
Where it comes from
The true double-ikat patola comes from Patan in Gujarat, where it has been woven for some nine hundred years. It was a cloth of royalty and ritual, so prized that it travelled the spice routes to Indonesia, where patola became sacred heirloom cloths in their own right. (A lighter, single-ikat version is woven in Rajkot — lovely, but quicker to make and not the same painstaking double weave.)
The hands that weave it
Patan patola is the work of one extraordinary lineage: the Salvi family, who have kept the craft alive for centuries and remain among the very last who can weave it. A single sari can take six months to a year of dyeing and weaving, often with several members of the family working together — which is why a genuine Patan patola is treasured, and priced, like an heirloom.
The motifs
Patola patterns are geometric and glowing, built from repeated figures: popat (parrots), hathi (elephants), nari (dancing women), flowers, and the dense ratan chowk grid. Because the colour lives inside the thread, the pattern is equally vivid on both faces of the cloth.
Patola at Khinkhwab
We love how the language of patola meets the language of Banaras. Explore our Banarasi Patola collection, where the geometry of the patola is woven in the Banarasi idiom.
Frequently asked questions
Why is patola so expensive?
Because double ikat is one of the most labour-intensive textile techniques in the world. Both warp and weft must be tie-dyed to the exact pattern before weaving, and a single sari can take six months to a year to complete by hand.
What is the difference between Patan and Rajkot patola?
Patan patola is true double ikat, with both warp and weft resist-dyed — the rarest and most painstaking form. Rajkot patola is single ikat, where only the weft is dyed; it is beautiful, but faster and more affordable to make.
Why does a patola look the same on both sides?
Because the pattern is dyed into the threads themselves rather than added on the surface, so it reads identically on the front and the back of the cloth.
Sources & further reading
- Rosemary Crill, Indian Ikat Textiles (V&A).
- Eiluned Edwards, Textiles and Dress of Gujarat.
- Documentation of the Patan patola tradition and the Salvi family.
