The surest signs that a fabric is genuinely handmade are small irregularities in the repeat and registration, the look of the back of the cloth, the character of the selvedges and, on bandhani, the physical knot marks left by tying. No single check is conclusive, but together they separate most hand-printed, hand-woven and hand-tied cloth from machine-made or screen-printed imitations. The strongest check of all is visiting the workshop and watching the work being done. For a buyer at a distance, that is where a local agent earns their keep.
Checks for printed cloth
- Look along the repeat: hand-block prints drift slightly, with repeats that do not line up perfectly and colours that meet with a hairline gap or overlap.
- Check for the block join: a faint line or slight change in density where one impression meets the next.
- Compare metres: a screen print is identical from first to last, while a block print varies in colour depth along the length.
- Look at the back: in a surface block print the colour usually shows through unevenly, while a resist print such as Ajrakh dyed in the vat is fully coloured on both sides.
Checks for woven, embroidered and tied cloth
- Handloom selvedges are slightly uneven, and the weft may show tiny loops or bumps where the shuttle changed.
- Yarn density varies a little along the length as the weaver's beat changes, which a power loom does not do.
- Ikat, including Patola, shows soft feathered edges on motifs where the dyed threads align, not crisp printed outlines.
- Hand embroidery shows knots and thread ends on the back, with stitches that vary slightly in length.
- Genuine bandhani has small puckered rings at each dot where the ties were removed, and the dots vary slightly in size and spacing; printed imitations have flat dots on a perfectly regular grid.
Paper and people
Geographical indication tags and handloom marks help, but they protect a name rather than certify a particular piece, so treat them as a starting point. Ask who made the cloth, where and when, and whether you can speak to them or see the tables, looms or tying groups. A maker who is proud of hand work will usually welcome the visit, and one who is not will usually find a reason to delay it.
Photographs and short videos from the workshop are a reasonable substitute when you cannot travel, provided they show your actual order on the table or loom rather than general footage. Ask for the same piece to be shown at two or three stages, which is hard to fake and tells you about progress at the same time.
How we help
We visit the workshops and tying groups ourselves and confirm who actually makes the goods, so that your handmade claim rests on something you can show. We inspect before packing, keep the payment trail to artisan groups fair and documented, and send weekly updates with photographs from the floor. A free 20-minute sourcing review is a good way to work out which checks matter most for your product.