DEVI | The Lotus Meenakari Jaal Fabric

An exceptional fabric, born from the lotus.

The design’s graph, the naksha that guides every thread on the loom, was drawn from the lotus motif. It’s woven on pure Katan silk in Banaras, in a deep red ground. A flowing ogee jaal of gold vines frames lotus blooms in full flower, worked in multi-colour meenakari in coral and flame silk, with touches of silver-toned leaves between them.

It’s woven in Jamdani, in what weavers call naksha hunar, the art of the naksha. Every motif is hand-placed into the weave as the cloth grows. The loom was set with an 812-count reed on a single warp, and it took 2,000 to 2,500 weaving cards to bring the design to life. Weaving just 6 metres took close to two months.

It’s rich, layered and endlessly versatile: a kurta, a lehenga, a jacket or a sherwani that people will ask about.