Bandhani Cushion Covers - Set of 5, 16x16 Silk Pillow Covers

What brocade is

Brocade is woven, not printed. The pattern is built into the cloth on the loom with a supplementary weft thread, which is why the motif has a slight raised texture you can feel with a thumb and why it does not fade or crack the way a print does. It is the same construction used for Banarasi saris.

Bandhani itself is a tie-resist dye technique from Gujarat and Rajasthan - cloth pinched into thousands of points and bound before dyeing. Here the Bandhani pattern is woven into the brocade rather than tied, which is why it survives handling better than true tie-dye.

Why this set

Every cover in this set is built the same way: a patterned centre panel in one colour set inside a contrasting woven border, usually gold. That framing is what makes them read as deliberate when you line five up, and it is the difference between this set and a plain five-colour set. The palette runs red through maroon and gold, so it sits naturally against wood and leather.

What is in the set

• Red - red-orange ground with a patterned centre
• Yellow - yellow ground, red centre panel
• Pink - pink ground, red centre panel
• Maroon - deep maroon with a gold chevron border
• Gold - the lightest of the five

Five covers, five grounds, one gold border running through all of them. The photographs are the reliable guide to the exact shades - dyed silk varies a little between batches.

Where they go

On a leather or dark wood sofa, which is where the red-and-gold palette earns its keep. Across a bed for Diwali. On dining chairs at a festival table. In a mandir room on floor seating. The colours are festival colours, so this is the set most people put away and bring back out.

The rest of the range

We make four sets of five at the same 16 inch size, so they mix: the multicolour diamond brocade set, the elephant motif set and the Banarasi floral set. Buying two sets and splitting them across a sofa and an armchair reads better than ten of one design in a row.

For the table below the sofa, the silk table runner is woven in the same brocade.

Gifting

Five covers in one box makes an easy Diwali or housewarming gift - it needs no sizing, no colour matching to the recipient's furniture, and it packs flat. Tell us at checkout if you are sending it directly and we will leave the invoice out.