This black sari or 'garo' is intricately embroidered with an overall pattern of birds of paradise, dragonflies and butterflies, flitting amidst dense flowering vines in white silk thread. 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. Parsee garo tells of one aspect of trade between China and India.It required a great deal of ingenuity and patience to make a garo, and was equally expensive to acquire. They were common up to 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.
