Ancient fabric spun across history makes comeback amid lies and climate change

Low artisan wages, lack of awareness, cheap knock-offs remain a challenge to its revival.

- Rohini Mohan

The sari was gorgeous, sheer—and dubious. The advertisement said it was made of muslin, an elegant, luxuriously soft cotton fabric once favoured by Mughal and European queens.

Dr Pritha Dasmahapatra was intrigued: At 2,000 rupees (S$30), this would be a steal. But how was it possible?

This 46-year-old obstetrician from London and textile hobbyist, who grew up in Kolkata, India, has loved saris for as long as she can remember. She knew that muslin was a rare and exotic fabric, often called "woven air" for its transparency and lightness. She also knew that it had many impostors.

Muslin was a wonder-cloth from erstwhile Bengal—now split between Bangladesh and West Bengal in India—patronised by Mughal royalty, worn by Roman nobles, loved by French queen Marie Antoinette and embroidered by author Jane Austen. Its sheerness was its glamour; it could famously pass through a ring but was so strong that a needle could not easily pierce it.

Fine handwoven muslin vanished in the late 18th century, edged out by machine-made imitations in England and the extinction of the fragile indigenous cotton plant in the incessant floods of Dhaka. Expert spinners and weavers abandoned the loom for the plough.

So what is the muslin out there in the markets today?

In Singapore, baby swaddles, soft but thick, are sold as muslin. In the US, some people call thin cheesecloth or jam strainers muslin. It is thought in Europe to be the backdrop in photo studios. But these could not possibly be the same material that had enthralled the world's elite for a century.

Was muslin truly gone then, or was it hiding in plain sight? Dr Dasmahapatra had found a mystery she desperately needed to solve.

FINDING OLD MUSLIN