Bright hues

The National Silk Expo is a good shopping destination this weekend

Batik silks from Kutch , Gujarat on display at the National Silk Expo that opened in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Intricately woven saris from Chattisgarh, bright hued kurtas from Jaipur, and batik printed churidar bottoms from Gujarat were only some of the products available at the National Silk Expo held at Kamma Sangam, Ameerpet this week. While these exhibitions have become commonplace now, the shoppers, who began to trail in by late morning, this time around were treated to some exquisite boutique saris in matka silk and handwoven cotton.

Although their prices ranged from Rs.5600 to Rs.12000 these saris were huge crowd pullers on account of their attractive colours and unique design.

The Jaipur stall, which claimed to have on display the

zari skirt worn by Asin in the recently released

Bol Bachchan , is worth looking at for their cotton jackets and bags. Cotton saris with appliqué work in tribal designs were another product that caught the eye, although the stall offered a very limited choice of colours. The Byloom saris from West Bengal, on the other hand, offered many choices in colour and design.

Keeping with a rising trend, a store from Gujarat had given the popular leggings an interesting twist with batik printing. These funky bottoms came in blue, maroon, green, black and orange for Rs. 400. Apart from this, the exhibition had a rich collection of Banarasi silks, Chanderi cottons, Manipuri silks, Assam-muga silk, khadi, bandhini and tussar silk. The exhibition is on till July 15, July 2012.