The grandeur of paithani silk:

Named after a little town located near Aurangabad, these sarees are made of silk and hand woven. The result is a luxurious touch and appeal, which is widely worshipped by both the wearers and makers.

The best thing about for special occasions like wedding or any other special events or celebrations is that these sarees come with a wide variety of styles and designs to choose from. The majority of the paithani saree designs boast traditional touch, therefore getting contemporary designs in these sarees will be a little difficult.

Some common features of Paithani sarees:

• These sarees come with borders with oblique square designs
• Senior aged ladies wear Paithani sarees with plain and spotted designs
• The pallus of these sarees are embellished with the peacock designs
• The weaves of these sarees create kaleidoscope effects on these sarees both breadth wise and length wise
• Most of the paithani sarees are created from silk and gold fabrics and some are created from zari and cotton.
• Each thread used to weave paithani sarees is first treated with caustic soda and therefore spun to the finest design in the gold threads from Surat. This thing makes Paithani a really expensive saree to buy
• The most popular paithani sarees are ciddle-gatta, charkha and china silk paithani
• The zari used to weave paithani sarees is prepared from metallic and pure silver yarn or sometimes very fine gold threads are also used
• The pallus are paithani sarees are embellished with motifs like the panja, muniya, the Laher, the Barwa, the Asawall or the Muthada.
• Famous motifs created on the paithani sarees include the Hans, Gautam Buddha, The Asawall, the Ashraffi, the Tota-Maina, the Bangadi Mor, The Amar Vell, The Narali motif, The Humarparinda and many more.

How to identify a real paithani saree?

The main element of the paithani saree is the completely hand woven pallu and border. Woven between the warp and weft threads, this saree almost creates a mirror image of the face design at the opposite side of the saree. This is the difference between a handmade and machine made paithani sarees, where the mesh of threads are visible in the reverse side of the sarees.

These days, various smart techniques are applied to the machine made versions of paithani sarees like as trimming the mesh of threads carefully to offer the appearance of real paithani sarees.

But in case you are finding wide range of shades in same design, too much shine or non-natural color ranges in the sarees, then definitely these sarees are not authentic paithani. So, to test the authenticity of the silk, remove several strands from warp and weft threads and individually burn those. Those will smell like human hair. This way, you will find the differences between synthetic and natural mixture.

How to preserve paithani sarees?

Paithani sarees should be used more often. After using these sarees every time, allow the sarees to breathe for several hours and therefore wrap those in muslin covers and keep those in the wooden chest. Avoid board or mica cabinets as these often contain chemicals. Don’t forget to change the fold of these sarees after every use.

While these are in storage offer good air circulation and in case you find creases in these sarees after wearing, only roll press these sarees. Remember, don’t iron these. To protect these sarees from insects, use a few pieces of cloves. In case you find any sign of damage or tear, consult with the manufacturer and get that fixed. But one thing you must keep in mind is that the more you will use these sarees, these will last longer.