The gold is the fibre, not a dye
Muga comes from Antheraea assamensis, which lives nowhere else and has never been domesticated the way mulberry silkworms have. The colour is the silk’s own. Nothing is added to get it, and nothing washes out of it.
That matters for a garment you expect to keep. A dyed silk fades. Muga does the opposite: each wash takes a little more of the sericin off the surface and the lustre comes up. A muga garment is usually handed down, and it usually looks better when it is.
What this one is
A sleeveless Nehru-cut waistcoat, worn over a kurta. The woven border runs along the placket. It is woven, not printed and not embroidered, which is why it reads as a change in the cloth rather than something sitting on top of it.
If you are deciding between this and the contrast weave, the difference is only the border treatment. The silk is the same.
Telling it from a blend
Muga is expensive enough that blends are common, and a blend is not always disclosed. The burn test and the feel test are both in how to tell real muga, which is worth reading before buying golden silk from anyone, including us.
