Times of India

Bangalore, Apr 5: That expensive silk saree you bought recently could be a fake one. There's a lot of artificial silk being sold as genuine stuff.

For proof: At least 60% of the silk sold across the city, including at some major shops on MG Road and Chickpet, pass off artificial fabrics as pure silk, says the Silk Mark Organisation of India.

The organisation, a registered society under the textiles ministry, authorises the use of Silk Mark, the butterfly stamp, as a mark of purity.

A dipstick study conducted by the organisation pointed out that most dealers not authorised by it sell synthetics such as rayon and nylon as pure silk.

"The tests opened a Pandora's box. It's impossible for anyone to make out the difference between original and fake silk with the naked eye.

Tests have to be conducted to find out the quality.We wanted to find out why we should recommend to people to buy only those products that are authorised by our organisation. The answer was in the study results,"said organisation chief executive Vandana Kumar.

The organisation recently outsourced an agency to study the quality of silk in the market. The agency had picked samples from over 13 shops in the city ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 7,500.

"That's when we knew even major shops were either unaware or did not bother."The organisation conducted its own tests on samples collected from a section of authorised users of the Silk Mark.

"There was one dealer whose licence we cancelled because he did not use the silk labels as per the agreement. But the quality of silk in all the other authorised shops was excellent,"Vandana said.

Does this mean a product not stamped by the organisation is not trustworthy? "We aren't saying it. There is nothing we can do about those selling fake products as silk.

But we can tell people what is the best buy. Just like Hallmark for gold."The organisation will expand the scope of the study in the city but also conduct studies in Chennai, Mumbai and Varanasi.