Saris, Skirts, and More from Rajasthan

I am thrilled to open my mailbox and find a dinner party invitation from a certain Indian friend. She's a fabulous cook and my mouth waters to think of her cumin-tinged roasted eggplant. But mostly, I'm eager to see what she's wearing.

Invariably, she greets us in a richly hued sari so stunning that it leaves her dinner guests feeling utterly unimaginative. This time it's embellished with embroidered swirls and tiny reflective mirrors, the kind of textile decoration associated with her native Rajasthan, a partially desert region bordering Pakistan.

Indian textiles count among the richest craft legacies on Earth, encompassing literally thousands of local styles and techniques. Textiles from Rajasthan represent an entire tradition with many sub-specialties, from wood-block prints to tie-dyed cottons and a litany of embroidery techniques long enough to fill a glossary of their own. Through the centuries these rich regional fabrics have constituted a valuable part of women's wedding trousseaus and dowries, identified social status and class, and—through elaborate color symbolism—even conveyed details about the wearer like her hometown and if she is the mother of a boy.

Artisans in Rajasthan begin with cotton threads woven on traditional wooden horizontal looms. Many weavers still use vegetable dyes, including those concocted from turmeric, indigo, saffron, and pomegranate, infused into the fabric with the waters of local rivers. The result: the characteristic vibrant reds, blues, oranges, and yellows so closely associated with Rajasthan, colors that also imbue the region's food and architecture.

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