Muga Bridal Set and a Complaint About Dull Lustre
A weaver-entrepreneur in Sualkuchi supplies a bridal mekhela chador in natural golden muga silk to a customer in Guwahati for ₹18,000. The set used about 4.5 m of muga fabric bought at ₹2,500 per metre, ₹2,000 of embroidery thread, and 22 hours of stitching and finishing labour. Ten days after delivery the customer returns the set: she washed the chador at home with detergent powder, dried it in direct sun, and now says the golden lustre looks dull, the cloth feels stiffer, and there is a grey patch along one edge. She claims she was sold ordinary silk at muga price. The entrepreneur has the supplier's bill, the supplier's GI certificate and the Silk Mark tag, but gave no written care label with the garment.
1. How would you establish whether the fabric is genuine muga, and what care instructions should have accompanied the set?
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Establishing genuineness:
- Document trail: the supplier's bill, the GI certificate and the Silk Mark tag together are the strongest evidence - muga silk of Assam carries GI protection, and muga is not a fibre that any supplier can substitute casually at this price.
- Colour behaviour: muga (from Antheraea assamensis, reared in the Brahmaputra valley) has a natural golden tint that is inherent to the fibre and deepens with age and washing. It is never bleached white; a bleached white or unnaturally uniform gold is suspicious.
- Burn test on a spare thread: silk smells of burnt protein (like burnt hair), the ash is crushable, and it does not melt into a hard bead, which is what polyester or nylon does.
- Handle and price logic: muga is a non-mulberry silk with a crisp, slightly coarse handle and high strength; eri is softer and cream/white, mulberry is whiter, glossier and cheaper. A muga set at ₹2,500 per metre for the raw fabric is consistent with the market.
Care instructions that should have been supplied in writing: dry clean for the first clean, or gentle hand wash in cool water with a mild neutral soap or baby shampoo; never chlorine bleach or harsh detergent powder; do not wring or twist - roll in a towel; dry in shade, never in direct sun; iron on the reverse at low to medium heat while slightly damp; store wrapped in muslin, away from naphthalene and perfume; air the garment periodically.
2. Was ₹18,000 a reasonable price? Show the costing, and explain how you would handle the complaint.
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Costing:
- Muga fabric: 4.5 m × ₹2,500 = ₹11,250
- Embroidery thread and materials: ₹2,000
- Stitching and finishing labour: 22 hours × ₹150 = ₹3,300
- Subtotal: ₹16,550; add packaging, transport, incidental and wastage at about ₹700 → ₹17,250
- Margin at ₹18,000: ₹750, i.e. roughly 4% - thin for a bridal product, but not exploitative. If anything, the price is on the low side, which strengthens the seller's position; a genuinely substituted ordinary silk could not have been bought and worked for less than this.
Handling the complaint:
- Do not argue about the fibre first. Show the bills, GI certificate and Silk Mark, and offer to have a thread tested in the customer's presence. That settles the authenticity question with evidence rather than assertion.
- Explain the technical cause honestly: detergent powder, hard water and direct sun strip the natural sericin/gold and can leave a grey mineral or detergent residue along a fold - this is damage from washing, not a manufacturing defect. The dullness and stiffness are consistent with that.
- Accept the real failing: no care label was supplied. Apologise for that specifically and give written care instructions with every future sale. Offer a goodwill remedy - professional dry cleaning and pressing at the entrepreneur's cost - rather than an outright refund, since the fibre is genuine.
- Record the case with photographs and the customer's response; if a refund is finally agreed, take the set back and resell it as a dry-cleaned sample, since muga improves with careful handling.