Michelle Obama to receive 100 hand-woven silk Banarasi saris on India trip

New Delhi: Weavers from India are planning to give US First Lady Michelle Obama 100 hand-woven silk saris during her visit to New Delhi with her husband, a local businessman said Sunday.

The weavers have spent months painstakingly making the garments which they hope will promote their centuries-old industry in India's holiest city, Varanasi, as they face threats from cheaper, mass-produced competition.

"We have used pure gold and silver threads for the sari that we have prepared for Michelle," said Pervez Matin, whose family has been in the weaving business for three generations.

"It was woven on a handloom by our workers over two months," said Matin.

Matin's cream-coloured sari, which would normally cost 150,000 rupees ($2,400), is among the 100 sairs that Varanasi's weavers are planning to send the First Lady, who arrived with President Obama on Sunday on a three-day visit to India.

The stylish First Lady stepped off Air Force One wearing a tailored dress and matching jacket with splashes of blue, black and white, by Indian-American designer Bibhu Mohapatra.

"We know about the First Lady's love for our handwoven fabric. We will send all the saris and she can pick and choose what she likes," Matin said.

Varanasi's mainly Muslim weavers have long been famous for their high quality silk products which take days and sometimes months to make and fetch up to $10,000 a piece.

But craftsmen say the traditional Banarasi silk industry is hanging on by a thread and could be killed off within a generation by factory-made Chinese imports.

"Our industry is suffering. We thought it (gifting the saris to Obama) is a good way to highlight the problems that we are facing," Matin said.

"If she likes our saris and decides to wear them, it will be a great gesture of beauty with purpose."