The Ivory Jamdani Saree

Jamdani (discontinuous supplementary weft) · Shantipur, West Bengal

Jamdani is widely considered one of the most technically demanding handloom techniques still practiced today — its motifs are inlaid directly into the weave using small bamboo sticks to place extra weft threads by hand, discontinuously, rather than running them the full width of the fabric. It's a technique fine enough that Mughal-era Jamdani was once reserved for royal courts, and Shantipur's weavers, where this piece comes from, still work it the same painstaking way. Because each motif is placed individually, no two Jamdani pieces are ever woven quite the same. That is, in the truest sense, a handmade original.