This unusually light-coloured sari or 'garo' with large paisleys is woven in white silk thread on a lilac background. The garo is usually done on dark coloured satins. The base of this piece is formed by five lotus petals and set at the heart of the paisleys are two birds both facing the same direction. The border is embroidered with flowers alternating with a gird pattern. Each register including the border is edged by a narrow band of embroidery. A light lilac garo like this piece is considered uncommon.Garo is a Gujarati term meaning a plain sari. In the Parsi context, it is a 'gaji' or satin material of a sari length, fully covered with embroidery. Embroidery is usually done with twined silk of various shades to contrast with the darker background.It was rare for garos to be embroidered using both silk and jari thread. When the Parsi women ordered embroidered saris, the designs and motifs were essentially Chinese. It required a great deal of ingenuity and patience to make a garo, and was equally expensive to acquire. They were common upto the early part of the 20th century, but later went out of fashion. Today efforts are afoot to revive this particular technique of making the garos.
