Sarees, lehengas and dress material in Khargone

Eight lines on the women’s counter

The weaves we keep

Every weave behaves differently on the body, and the right one depends on the occasion and the weather more than on the price.

• Banarasi — woven in Varanasi with zari work through the border and pallu. The formal choice for weddings and the saree most often bought as a gift.
• Kanjivaram — heavy south Indian silk with a distinct contrast border. Holds its shape and its colour for decades.
• Maheshwari — woven at Maheshwar, about sixty kilometres from Khargone. Light cotton-silk with a reversible border, comfortable in the heat and local to this region.
• Chanderi — the other Madhya Pradesh weave, sheer and glossy, with small buttis across the body. Good for daytime functions.
• Cotton — what most customers actually wear day to day. Breathes, washes easily, and is the first thing to move in April and May.
• Georgette and chiffon — soft synthetics that drape close and travel well. Popular for evening functions.
• Net and printed — net for party wear where the fall matters, printed for everyday variety at a lower price.

Buying a saree for a wedding

Two things are worth deciding before you come in: whether the saree is for the bride, for family, or as a gift, and roughly what you want to spend. Those two answers narrow a wall of several hundred pieces down to a manageable shelf.

Come in daylight if you can. Shop light and daylight show zari and colour differently, and a border that reads gold under a tube light can read brassy outside. Bring the blouse or petticoat you plan to pair if you already have it — matching from memory rarely works.

If several people in the family are buying for the same function, buy together. Shades within one weave vary slightly between batches, and matching six sarees is far easier in one visit than across three.

Our saree buying guide goes through weave, budget and blouse pairing in more detail before you come in.

Sarees by occasion

Most customers arrive with an occasion in mind rather than a weave, which is the sensible way round. What the saree is for decides the cloth.

• Daily wear — cotton, cotton blends and printed synthetics. Washable at home, comfortable through a Nimar summer, and the cheapest to replace.
• Office and college — plain and small-print cotton or synthetic in quiet shades, with a blouse piece cut at the counter. Uniform sarees for schools and institutions are on the uniforms page.
• Festivals — Maheshwari and Chanderi for daytime, georgette and silk for the evening. Festive stock lands ahead of each season.
• Family weddings — worked georgette, net and silk with a fancy blouse piece. This is where most of the counter’s variety sits between October and February.
• Bridal — Banarasi and Kanjivaram silk, and bridal lehengas. Come early in the wedding season, and with time to spare.
• Gifting — a saree given at a wedding or a rasam is chosen differently again; the gifting page covers what usually goes with it.

Blouse pieces, petticoats and astar

A saree is rarely finished at the counter. We keep matching and contrast blouse pieces, including worked fancy pieces for wedding wear, so the pairing is decided while the saree is still in front of you rather than guessed at later.

Petticoats are stocked in standard sizes and the common shades. Astar, the lining cloth that goes under a blouse or a lehenga, is sold by the metre — tell your tailor to specify how much before you buy.

Looking after a silk saree

A Banarasi or Kanjivaram bought once is meant to last decades, and most of the damage that comes to one happens in the cupboard rather than on the body.

• Wrap silk in an old cotton or muslin cloth, never in plastic — plastic holds moisture and dulls zari.
• Refold it a different way once a year. A saree left folded on the same line for years splits along that line.
• Keep naphthalene near the stack but not touching the cloth.
• Dry clean silk and heavy zari. Cotton, Maheshwari and Chanderi can be washed at home — cold water, separately, for the first two or three washes.
• Air it for an hour in the shade after a function before it goes back in the cupboard.

Frequently asked