The Opulent world of Brocades

 

Today, lets talk about my love for brocades, its origins, some techniques without using much technical jargon. These are very rich, royal and intricate fabrics that I must discuss and highlight some of their characterictics. I have designed Lengha's, Anarkali's, Choli's, Kurta/Pants combo suits with a Jackets in these fabulous rich colorful gorgeous fabrics for many clients. I will share some pics as references so you can visualize these fabrics on a person and share my enthusiasm for these beautiful fabrics.

The Brocade is a heavy fabric interwoven with a richly, decorative raised design, often made in coloured silks and with or without gold and silver threads.

 These fabrics are mostly used for making expensive garments and sarees. Very often the satin ground weave is particularly used for garments fabrics. These fabrics are characterized by their jals which are normally made out of silk and tilla. 

In the 16th to the early 19th centuries the yarns (wires) were made using an ancient method of flattening pure gold or silver metal without any core thread , called Zari .This accounted for its peculiar stiffness. Sometimes cracks would develop in the metal during the process of weaving which resulted in the loss of its natural luster and smoothness. Fabrics of this type are costly because weaving with Zari was difficult and required great skill. 

Banarasi Silk (also known as Benarasi Silk) is a fine variant of Silk originating from the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India. ... Originally crafted exclusively for the royalty, each Banarasi sari was created from real gold and silver threads, taking as much as a year to make.These type of clothes were generally commissioned and worn by Kings and Queens of the Mughal Empire, the British Monarchy , the French royal household are some of the significant members that wore such finery and surrounded their homes with rich tapestries in these brocade

fabrics. Some fine examples can be seen in Louis the XVI's Palace and his court, the Mughal dynasty, Queen Victoria and many more.

Regretfully, due to the high cost and difficulty in weaving , this type of zari work has mostly gone out of favor amongst the contemporary weavers and they mostly depend on polyester or pure silk as a substitute today. 

Silk brocade of Banaras, Ahmedabad and Surat were well known in the 17th century. While Banaras continues to be a centre of production of silk brocades, Ahmedabad and Surat have practically nothing to show today. On the other hand, silk brocade weaving has gained ground in the south of India.

There are various techniques employed in Banarasi brocade weaving:

a) Getwa is a technique from Varanasi that produces small motifs in the fabric. 

b) Jala weaving, also a technique from Varanasi, weaving both ends are raised forming a shed through which the weft is passed. This technique allows the weaving of highly intricate patterns.

c) Jacquard is a technique using a special mechanism called a jacquard head which is situated over a hand or power loom and is used to make all over figured fabrics such as brocades, tapestries, and damasks.

Design for brocade begins with a penciled design. It is then transferred to a large sheet of paper that shows magnified detail of the weft colours. In the process of weaving, the weaver makes use of rapid motions to ensure uniformity in the production of figured fabrics and in material of high compact structure. 

Tanchoi fabric, used to produce tanchoi sarees, was introduced to Varanasi in the early 20th century. There are no specific design aspects in tanchoi fabric. It can be recognised by a few characteristics which are such as using pure silk, so that the weave is very dense and well packed. 

Today, the sarees from Banaras made of brocade are a MUST and necessary item of  attire in a brides trousseau and these sarees perform as the underpinning of all Indian weddings. 

Regards

Joneeta