A young visitor at the handloom expo watches an artisan at work on Wednesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Dec. 21: Khadi and chiffon saris from Varanasi, tussar silk (with kantha stitch work) from Santiniketan, Kanjeevaram from Karnataka, Bangalore silk, jute silk and rich, pure and soft mulberry silk — the variety is simply mind-boggling.

If your wardrobe lacks any of these exclusive saris or dress materials, head straight to Silks and Cottons, a national-level handloom exhibition that started at the planetarium today.

Fifty-three stalls at the 14-day fair are offering varied kinds of saris from across the country, including cotton silk, kosa silk, Benarasi, dupian silk and also the popular Jamewar Tanchoi saree of Varanasi among others. Customers can even avail of dress materials of different fabrics at some of the stalls. Weavers spinning silk and cotton yarn on various kinds of weaving machines were an attraction for the visitors.

A. Rahman, an artisan from Varanasi, said: “My stall has many unique traditional saris of Varanasi. I am offering 20 per cent discount on my fare. The mulberry silk saris are priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 25,000, cotton silk saris between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,500, pure silk ones between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000 and Kosa silk ones between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000. We have salwar suit pieces in dupian silk at Rs 5,000.”

Meera Choudhary, a homemaker visiting the fair, said: “The collection at this exhibition is really very good and the best thing is that the saris are affordable too. I liked muga silk saris particularly.”