We’ve grown up learning of the gleam of Kanchipurams from Tamil Nadu, the historical grandeur of Banarasis from Varanasi, the familiar swirls of kantha from West Bengal. But provenance is a curious thing—sometimes linear, sometimes shape-shifting. What belongs where? Who decides? Dr Ritu Sethi, founder-trustee of the Craft Revival Trust, recalls a footnote that lingers: “In a primary source, I found that [John] Lockwood Kipling (Rudyard Kipling’s father) said the finest whitework textiles came from the Madras Presidency. But we don’t know what this ‘whitework’ looked like. Could it have been chikankari, most famously from Awadh?”
Like memories, true craft hides in corners till sought out. Sometimes it stays tethered to a place, but more often than not, it travels via the hands that make it. Take, for example, block printing, most revered in Kutch (Gujarat) as ajrakh, but widely practised in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Karnataka and even Machilipatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, where it’s known as kalamkari block printing. Partitions may force people to divide goods and lands, but patronage follows desire, and textiles move where they are tugged at. India is not a single scroll of tradition; it’s a patchwork quilt with infinite seams. And for every celebrated weave, there is a second, third or even fourth textile waiting to be remembered. This is our map of those discoveries. A glossary of Indian textiles stitched together with revivalists, risk-takers and quiet believers who’ve dusted off archives or reimagined threads for today’s wardrobes beyond the most obvious names.
Although woven in Varanasi, mapcha gyaser’s route was originally traced through Ladakh. Namza Couture’s collections return the textile to its roots.
Andhra Pradesh
Almash Tarash, raised tinsel work of diamond-shaped lamé, once bordered the khada dupatta. These borders, or gokhru, were often finished with dagger-like khanjar ki lace. Unlike the North’s zamindozi, which covered the fabric completely, the Deccani guldozi style let it breathe, using metallic thread to sketch airy patterns. A family of artisans with four generations of expertise is helping revive this lost vocabulary of Deccani glamour, one gleaming thread at a time for Sourav Das’s namesake label.
Arunachal Pradesh
The loin loom or backstrap loom, among the earliest of its kind, is still used in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. In these regions, weaving is the sole domain of women. Designer Jenjum Gadi captures his mountainous memories using textiles made on the loin loom, turning them into sharply cut jackets and capes. His point of view through each collection focuses less on unnecessary reinvention and more on continuation, a thread pulled from his own childhood into the present.
Assam
Designer Sonam Dubal’s Sikkimese-Tibetan and Maharashtrian heritage, combined with a Himalayan upbringing, exposed him early to textiles tied to spiritual and ecological values. Eri silk, also known as Tsen silk in monastic settings, is central to Buddhist traditions due to its non-violent production methods. Working with both iterations since 1999, Dubal has fused eri’s textured character with vintage or leftover resist-dyed ikats and brocades, often upcycled, to create garments that echo what he calls “cultural linkages” between philosophies, geographies and techniques.
Bihar
Sujani began as a ritual textile in Bihar, made from layered cloth and stitched with protective motifs for newborns. Over time, it evolved into a form of narrative embroidery used by women to depict their daily lives. When Swati Kalsi began working with sujani artisans in 2008, the design vocabulary remained largely traditional. Her intervention introduced a more graphic, minimal aesthetic often with indigo-dyed fabrics and stencil-like motifs. This shift helped refine the embroidery’s visual language, while continuing to involve entire families in the making process.
Goa
Your Goa wardrobe might be all floaty dresses and denim shorts, but the state’s most enduring textile is a checked cotton weave originally worn by Kunbi women. Marginalised and denounced by caste hierarchies, they were reduced to entertainers, but they were, and are, the original inhabitants of the land. Besides his many legacies, the late Wendell Rodricks also helped revive and dignify this textile. With his team of weavers, he softened the palette, elevated the cotton and placed it in contemporary collections.
Gujarat
A state known for its endless styles of embroidery, dyeing methods and award-winning artisans, Gujarat’s humble hero is kala cotton. Ashok Siju’s unisex shirts begin in the rain-fed fields of Kutch, where local sakalia (kala cotton) is grown without chemicals. The cotton is hand-spun on the charkha, dyed using natural dyes and then hand-woven on their compound. Pattern-making and cutting are done locally, and for the final step, Rabari women from Bhujodi hand-stitch each shirt, completing a fully local and sustainable production cycle.
Haryana and Punjab
Phulkari or flower work is a traditional embroidery from Punjab that dates back to the 15th century. Among many other forms, bagh stands out for its dense surface coverage, often worn during weddings and festivals. The most intricate form, bawan bagh, can contain up to 52 panels on a single textile. Designers Sukriti and Aakriti Grover work with artisans to create festive garments embroidered with bagh using organic cotton. “By updating the cuts, colours and context, we aim to keep phulkari relevant and wearable today while supporting craft-based livelihoods,” says Sukriti.
Himachal Pradesh
‘Shatranj, the Political Circus’ is a Chamba rumal by Delhi Crafts Council and Swati Kalsi that reinterprets the Shatranj theme, drawing from contemporary politics.
