The makers
The people at the loom
Every piece in this store can be traced to a specific workshop and a specific family.
Varanasi — handloom brocade
Four generations of the same family, weaving kadhwa and jangla patterns from graph-paper designs that have been in the household since the 1940s. Real gold and silver zari, pit looms, no shortcuts.
Lucknow — chikankari and zardozi
A women-led karigar collective working bakhiya, murri and phanda stitches on mulmul. Zardozi and dabka work is done on the adda by a separate workshop in the old city.
Kachchh — natural-dye ajrakh
Sixteen stages of resist printing and washing in indigo and madder at Ajrakhpur. The colour deepens for the first few washes and then holds for years — natural dye behaving exactly as it should.
Kanchipuram and Chanderi
Korvai-technique Kanjivarams, where two weavers work two shuttles to join a contrast border by hand. Chanderi silk-cotton in nakshi buti, woven light enough for an Indian summer.