Let us be honest, owing to our increasingly fast-paced lives, we are giving in to more and more comforts in every segment. If you are thinking that why a clothing brand with age old traditional values like ours is ranting against it, then well, we must assert that the demand for easier materials is taking something very important to our heritage and ancient roots away. We, in the name of convenience, keep questioning a lot of our own and while JDS values the ideology of walking strongly with the contemporary times, it also enforces the truth that our own culture has deeply embedded things that are also quite relevant to the timelessness of our culture. In the same spirit, Katan, a centuries old silken legacy is facing tougher times. Thus, it was time for us to bring to the fore the truth, hence we are talking about katan and undoing the myth of the heavy fabric.
Katan Silk: A journey and true embodiment of globalization
Katan is a wonderfully historical fabric. In one of our earlier blogs, we have discussed in details about the history of Banarasi fabric and its travels before coming to our wardrobes. Let us give a crisp and quick refresh for you.
Katan, a very strong, or actually one of the strongest and authentic woven silk fabric, was a solid favourite of the Chinese. Their royalty and nobility would wear the katan, then known in their own vernacular. They would make tapestries of the fabric for their rooms, present embroidered fabric dedications to the respectable or their ancestors too. The garments of silk they would wear had dragons, lotuses, cherry blossoms and everything that nature showed them, delicately embroidered using gold and silver and coloured silken threads. It was usually opulent and the higher the stature of the wearer and patron, the greater the opulence.
When katan travelled to the Persian lands, it gained more patterns, largely floral motifs in finer and yet grandiose portions. The zardozi was born as zari was used to narrate nature’s tales on silken grounds. And then through the trade route, katan came to the land of India and the subcontinent. We made it more ours. The Mughals became the main patron and would order new things like meenakari. The Marathi influence of paithani added bolder bird motifs, while the jamdani from Bengal added geometric cutwork patterns, and similarly many regions contributed. Katan is a legacy which has a heavy history but as a fabric is not as heavy, that is a myth we intend to bust.
Katan Silk: A silken Fabric with great Strength
Katan is a handloom banarasi weave. One can call it the original weave also if they like. If you see an artisan weaving it using the pit loom, you will see how strongly the artisan holds many silken threads together. Though silk is fine and delicate, when held in unity, it has soft luster with great strength. This makes the katan silk fabric strong and add to it all the zari work, the strength only multiplies. This weave is not easy as the silken threads can spread if let loose, hence it is tied in thicker bunches. This strength is usually mistaken and some people think it is a heavy fabric.
Katan Silk: Suitable for the Asian climates
Yes, we know that the weather is changing rapidly (and let us be honest, we are to blame) and that the warmer times are increasing. As opposed to the mythical thought that thinner fabrics will help you feel at ease, it is actually the natural fibers and their thicker weaves that will soak in the effects of the climate outside while trying to shielf you from the excess. Katan silk has the durability and yet the flowy fabric is thought fit for a bride since olden times and the new age concept of blouses and petticoats were inexistent. Sarees were worn mostly as one huge fabric draped around the body. The strength of the fabric added to the modesty of the bride, yet the woven embroideries would make the bride walk into the mandapa with her own story and looking like nature’s representative.
Katan Silk: Sheen and Luxury in colors
Katan Silk is not a heavy fabric. It is very agile and has the malleability to be used for any type of drape you want. What it does is, it adds to the modesty and increases the majestic. The weavers use very durable colors in dyeing and thus, the softest color also shines with an exuberance. These sarees are crafted for the women to be able to play with fashion, drapes, and look empowered. The myth that you will carry an added weight of the saree is quite untrue if you as us. JDS is known for the authentic quality and not the kilograms of the sarees and the same is true for the Katan, and it is essential that we undo the myth.
Final address:
We now use the word globalization a lot. Truth is, this has been there always and Banarasi sarees and fabrics are a testament of its existence. A fabric that has the durability to face the travels it has seen, is equally empowered to adorn the modern-day queens and be their lustrous armor at ease. Katan has the capability to re-emerge as that sensible occasion wear fabric that is sustainable as you can make it look richer or sober by merely restyling it and using accessories accordingly, thus JDS is proud for undoing the myth revolving around it heaviness or making it unpopular amongst the modern crowd. JDS Banaras is the best banarasi saree store in varanasi
Sacred Weaves:
Silk is delicate and durable in a very paradoxical way, yet Sacred Weaves is regularly making its own paradox every day. How? This is an online store, yet it gives personalized shopping assistance where the buyer can purchase a saree after thoroughly being ensured of its look and feel on a pre-booked appointment. There is no pressure either, so if you choose not to purchase, we understand. What does not change is the commitment to provide authentic and pristine silk sarees.