Neck designs

So the neckline is where most of the decisions get made, and where most of them go wrong.

The shape and the design get chosen together

This is the part almost everybody gets wrong. A shape is picked because it suits, and a design is picked from a photograph of a completely different shape. A running border that sings across a boat neck looks stranded on a deep V. A single central motif that works on a round neck reads as a badge on a boat neck, because there is no depth beneath it for it to sit in.

Placement needs the stitched blouse

Placed on flat cloth by somebody who has never seen you in the blouse, a design lands an inch out, and an inch at the neckline is visible from across a room. That is the whole argument for having the stitching and the embroidery done in the same place.

Scale changes with the person

A design that fills the neckline of one size looks sparse a size up and crowded a size down. It gets adapted rather than copied, which is a thing hand work can do and a machine cannot.

Send the shape you have in mind with a photograph of the saree, and you will get a suggestion rather than a catalogue.