Kota Doria Dress Material Magenta Pink Floral Yoke

This unstitched two piece dress material a kurta top with a matching dupatta the airy square check cotton woven by weaver families in Kaithoon just outside Kota in Rajasthan The ivory top is crowned with a deep magenta pink embroidered yoke of clustered flowers and leaves and the same rosy buti is scattered lightly down the body the sheer dupatta carries the magenta colourway through an embroidered floral border Hold any Kota Doria up to a window and look for its tell tale khat the fine lattice of tiny squares formed by bunching finer and coarser cotton yarns at set intervals across the loom On a genuine handwoven piece those squares are never machine perfect they swell and shrink by a hair across the width because every row is beaten into place by hand A powerloom imitation lays a flat rigidly even check on heavier synthetic cloth the real weave is feather light lightly crisp from a traditional starch finish and the grid sits very faintly raised so you can feel it under a fingertip The flowers are surface thread work not print turn the cloth over and you will see the stitch paths and small knots on the reverse Kota Doria is a GI protected weave a craft carried to Kaithoon generations ago and still worked on pit looms there today It is traditionally prized for being light enough to crush into a fist yet drape with a clean cool fall the quality that made it a hot weather favourite long before it reached city wardrobes Stitch the top into a straight or A line kurta and let the magenta yoke speak against the ivory ground the dupatta lifts the set for daytime weddings mehndis and festive lunches The sheer cotton breathes through the heat and the pink on ivory palette sits easily with silver white or gold