Do Handwoven Sarees Need To Be Expensive ?

Do Handwoven Sarees Need To Be Expensive ?

If you are looking for an exceptional outfit that will make you stand out from the crowd, we recommend you pick the sari. It never goes out of fashion and ticks all the boxes; versatile, trendy and relevant. It is a known fact that India is a home to around 60 different types of saris that are handcrafted in different regions. The weaving styles, the kind of fabric, shape of the motifs and their history bring a special demand to handcrafted saris.

It is quite possible to craft affordable and authentic hand woven silk sarees!

 

Weaving as an art form

A woven sari is analogous to paintings. While all artworks take much time and effort to complete, some like Ravi Varma's canvas paintings and Tanjore paintings are comparatively expensive than their other counterparts like watercolor paintings. Similarly, the price of a hand-woven sari depends on which weaving style was adopted to craft it. Kanjivarams, Paithanis and Banarasis are more expensive than the other weaving styles, because of the effort and detailing involved.

 

What makes a hand-crafted saree expensive?

So what determines the price of a hand-woven sari? The purity of the silk, design intricacy, the quality and quantity of zari, the overall weight of the saree and how much time it takes to weave the sari are the major factors. Gone are the days when hand-woven saris were made by just using different varieties of silk or cotton. These days, they come in wide variety of the finest fabrics such as tussar, organza, chanderi and muga.

Hand-woven saris are generally expensive because unlike power loom, weavers operate the shuttles by hand with immense skill and patience. The resulting saree has a unique texture and finish but it comes at a cost. An average hand-woven silk saree might take upwards of 4 days to weave and even more so if the designs are intricate. At Shreenivas silks, we keep using novel techniques to bring down the price of our silk sarees, while staying true to the authentic weaving methods. We have achieved this by streamlining the production process and eliminating wastages while at the same time, making the sarees a bit lighter in weight.
 

 

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