‘Sooti’ is derived from ‘sut’ meaning ‘cotton thread’.
Cotton is native to this region, first grown around 4000 years ago in the Indus Valley.
Jamdani originally referred to fine muslin fabrics woven with decorative motifs. The fabric was traditionally woven in communities located across Bangladesh and West Bengal. This technique was practiced across the undivided Indian subcontinent.
Sooti is soft and flows easily due to the skill of Bengal's weavers – evolved over centuries – required to spin the finest counts of cotton yarn and weave the finest mul. Generally, the yarn is spun in the early mornings with the region's humid climate providing exactly the right amount of moisture in the air which leads to finer fibers and a high thread count in its resultant use.
Sooti is prominent in our work with Jamdani: a discontinuous /weft technique where weavers create intricate designs by inserting extra threads of weft into the patterns. The raised, detailed motifs in Jamdani are created on the loom, by hand.
Sooti is a mainstay textile for us – especially for the summer. Our Sooti is woven year-round in looms across Bengal.
Our ideal Sooti creation is soft and ornamented with restraint, making it suitable to be worn all-day. On the loom, 'maadi' — starch water derived from a rice paste — is added to warp yarns to strengthen them for weaving. Once woven we remove 'maadi' from the fabric, bringing it to a soft textural finish.
Raw Mango introduced minimalist compositions and intentional color-blocking.
