पहनावा और वस्त्र
Three wardrobes with almost nothing in common share this coast. The Gujarati plain wears the seedha pallu drape, with the sari's end brought over the right shoulder and spread across the chest rather than thrown back — the opposite direction to the Nivi drape used across most of India. The Parsi wardrobe is a deliberate hybrid, a Gujarati drape carrying Chinese embroidery over a Zoroastrian ritual undergarment. On the forest slope, dress is short, unstitched and made for working wet ground, with silver and brass doing the display that embroidery does elsewhere.
क्या पहना जाता है
Gara sariParsi women
A silk sari covered in dense satin-stitch and French-knot embroidery, worn in the Parsi drape with the pallu brought over the right shoulder and drawn over the head. The embroidery reached the community through the China trade — Canton workshops embroidered to Parsi order — which is why cranes, pagodas, peonies and the chakla-chakli rooster-and-hen motif sit on a Gujarati garment. Old garas are inherited rather than bought, and the borders have their own names, including kanda-papeta, the onion-and-potato border.
किस मौके पर: Weddings, navjote, formal
Sadra and kustiZoroastrians, from the navjote onwards
A white cotton undershirt and a cord of lamb's wool woven from seventy-two threads, wound three times around the waist and tied with four knots. It is untied and retied while praying, so the garment is a timekeeping and attention device as much as a marker of initiation.
किस मौके पर: Daily, under other clothing
Dagli and phetaParsi men
A white cotton coat fastened with cloth ties instead of buttons, worn with a stiff, glossy hat that slopes back from the forehead. Both are now largely confined to weddings and to the fire temple.
किस मौके पर: Ceremonial
Warli and Kukna working dressAdivasi households of the forest slope
A short sari tied at knee length so it clears wet paddy, and for men a dhoti with a cloth over the shoulder. The proportions are functional and the ornament is metal rather than cloth.
किस मौके पर: Everyday
Surti Gujarati sariWomen of the estuary towns
The seedha pallu drape, historically in locally woven and zari-bordered cloth. Surat wove and still weaves the metal thread that borders saris across the country, which is the connection most visitors miss.
किस मौके पर: Everyday and festive
बुनाई और कपड़े
Surat Zari Craftजीआई टैगSurat
Metallic thread made by drawing silver or gilt wire down to hair fineness, flattening it and winding it around a silk or cotton core. Surat has been the country's principal zari supplier for centuries, which means Banarasi, Paithani and Kanchipuram borders very often begin here. Registered as a geographical indication in 2010.
Parsi gara embroiderySurat, Navsari, Udvada
Satin stitch, stem stitch, French knots and drawn-thread khakha borders worked in untwisted silk floss on silk ground. The craft nearly died in the twentieth century and survives through a small number of restorers and a revival trade; unregistered.
Surat art silk and powerloom clothSurat
An industrial textile economy of hundreds of thousands of powerlooms producing man-made fabric, dyed and printed locally. It is not a heritage craft and is included because it is the direct commercial successor to the port's older cloth trade, and because it employs more people than every craft in this entry combined.
गहने
Heavy silver neck rings and anklets among Warli, Kukna and Dhodia womenBrass and white-metal armlets on the forest slopeGlass and plastic beadwork strung at homePearls, worn strung and plain, in the Parsi wardrobeGold worked to Surti patterns in the estuary towns