Buyer's Guide · 7 min read
How to Choose the Right Fabric: A Buyer's Guide to Weaves & Weight
Buying fabric by the metre is a small design project. Get the three decisions right - occasion, season and weight - and the rest is taste. Here's the framework our stylists use at the atelier.
Start with the occasion
Day events and warm weather lean to cotton, linen and light silks; evenings and celebrations open up to georgette, organza and brocade. When in doubt, let the calendar decide before the colour chart does.
Weight and drape, explained
Sheers (40-60 GSM)
Georgette, chiffon, organza. Breezy, translucent, fluid - ideal for dupattas, overlays and summer layers.
Mid-weights (60-100 GSM)
Chanderi, crepe, habutai silk. Structure with movement - the workhorse range for kurtas and suits.
Heavy weaves (100 GSM+)
Raw silk, dupion, brocade. Weight that holds pleats and shapes a garment - best for lehengas, shararas and statements.
Colour against your skin tone
Test fabric near the face, in daylight. Warmer skin takes to earth tones and golds; cooler skin glows in jewel blues, pinks and pure whites. When buying online, hold a swatch from your wardrobe up to the screen for a rough match.
The metre math
Before you commit to a length, run the numbers through our fabric calculator - garment, measurements and grade in, yardage and cost out. It removes the guesswork (and the waste) from buying by the metre.