The gossamer fabric that is also known as ‘woven wind’ is just what you need this season. India accounts for 95 per cent of the world's handwoven fabrics today, but it has been a pioneer in the field for centuries now. Take mulmul (or muslin), one of the oldest fabrics in the world. It was first made by Bengali weavers in Dhakeshwari or Dhaka in Bangladesh, which was a part of India back then. Mentions of the fabric go back to the reign of Chandragupta Maurya (321–297 BCE) while the export of ‘Dhake ka mulmul’ to the word particularly flourished during the Mughal rule. Europeans first encountered it in Mosul in Iraq (hence leading to the name muslin), where it is said to have been imported from India by Arab traders. The lightweight fabric was so famously fine that an entire sari could pass through a ring, and earned it monikers such as ‘wonder gossamer’ or ‘the woven wind’.