In a few days time you’ll be ready to pull out that cream-tinted white drape, sitting pretty in your closet with a golden border bound to catch the sun. The official Onam stretch already commenced over the weekend on August 16, set to conclude on Wednesday, August 26, with the Thiruvonam.

There isn’t much thought per se, with regards to how to dress for Onam festivities. It’s hard to find any other silhouette or template, repeated like clockwork year on year, and met with little to no resistance when it comes to aesthetic. This one time, it’s cool to be dressed like everyone else and this extends to not just Kerala and the extended Malayali diaspora, but also everyone the community spreads their arms open to for joining in on the celebrations. But if you’re wondering what makes the ‘white and gold’ saree so enduring, know that the answer lies in its 2,000-year-old legacy.

The Kerala Kasavu saree evolved from an ancient two-piece garment called Mundum Neriyathum. This referred to unbleached handloom cotton with borders woven from real gold and silver threads. For obvious reasons, about and over 20 centuries back, this was a garment strictly reserved for the royalty and upper-ranking families of Malayali society. Over time, especially with the expansion of handloom production as an active livelihood skill, the Kasavu sarees made their way to the everyday woman. A its inception, this was essentially a ‘mundu’ worn around the lower body and the ‘neriyathu’, draped over the shoulder. Years and years of evolution merged them into the continuous six-yards, which is the version the common woman began draping.

What is known as the ‘Kasavu saree’ today is not a type in itself – the term ‘Kasavu’ refers to gold or silver metallic zari thread which is used in the border. For everyday use then, read gold and silver threads swiftly came to be replaced by copper-coated silver and further variations of zari making these drapes more affordable.

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The royal history of this rampantly popular saree today is not something that everyone necessarily knows of – all the more reason making scoping out an authentic handloom Kerala Kasavu saree from a power loom fake that much harder. The combination this saree’s legacy sits on – gold and white – makes it so that there are a plethora of options available for it, across an arching budget. However, if you’re in the market for a truly authentic Kasavu drape, your budget and attention to detail needs to be sky-high. The most obvious thing is to scope out the official Handloom Mark label. But besides that, checking the underside of the saree will tell you all that you need to know. What you’re looking to find are integrated weaving floats as opposed to a smooth, machine cut surface. Also worth looking out for, are human errors in the gold zari border – the ultimate marker of your drape being man-woven.

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To make your quest for an authentic Kasavu even more specific, know that Kerala has three GI-tagged handloom weaving clusters, authenticated for weaving real Kasavu sarees in cream and gold, as well as set-mundus. These are Balarampur, Chendamangalam and Kuthampully.

So is the Kasavu saree in your closet authentic, or power-loomed?