(01) Studio
we buy from twenty-six looms and name every one of them
No generic cloth and no invented heritage. We buy directly from weaver families across six clusters, pay before the piece is finished rather than after it sells, and print the weaver's name on the label. A run is six to twenty pieces because that is what a loom produces, not because scarcity sells.
Read how a piece is made
four things, done properly
new in
View More›(03) Process
four months, four hands
01
The yarn is chosen and dyed
Silk from Ramanagara, cotton spun in Ponduru. Natural dye where the colour allows it and azo-free chemical dye where it does not — we will tell you which on the product page rather than implying every colour here comes out of a plant.
02
It goes on the loom
Eight to eighteen weeks, depending on the weave. A kadhwa Banarasi takes three weeks longer than the powerloom version it is usually mistaken for, and that gap is most of what you are paying for.
03
It is cut and finished here
Everything is finished in the Bengaluru studio — cut, lined, pockets set, hand-rolled hems. Saris are checked metre by metre against the light before they are folded.
04
It ships with its provenance
The label names the weaver, the cluster and the month it came off the loom. Repairs come back to us at cost for as long as the piece exists.
(04) The count
what the label actually means
Four numbers, none of them rounded up, and the only four we will stand behind in writing.
“A handloom sari is not slow because we are romantic about it. It is slow because a pit loom moves at the speed of two hands and one foot.”
26
Looms we buy from
Across six clusters — Kanchipuram, Varanasi, Chanderi, Lucknow, Kutch and Ponduru. Named on every label.
8-18
Weeks on the loom
Per piece, before it reaches the studio. A run is six to twenty pieces because that is what one loom yields.
0
Polyester, anywhere
No blended zari sold as pure, no polyester lining, no viscose called silk. If a piece is a blend the page says the ratio.
100%
Paid before it sells
Weavers are paid in full when the piece leaves the loom, not when we sell it. That is the whole reason the prices look like this.
the archive
View allcloth first, everything else after
(05) Worn
from people who kept it
“Bought the indigo khadi four years ago and it is now the only sari I actually reach for. It took two years to get soft and nobody warned me about that except the product page, which did.”
Ananya S.
Verified purchase
“The made-to-order lehenga was quoted at sixteen weeks and they refused my first date because it was eleven weeks out. Annoying at the time. Correct, in hindsight.”
Ritika M.
Verified purchase
“The bandhgala is the only kurta I own with a shoulder that holds its shape after a full night. The black has no shine to it, which was the entire reason I bought it.”
Kabir N.
Verified purchase
(06) Notes
from the studio
How to tell a handloom from a powerloom in ten seconds
Look at the reverse, look for the irregularity, and pull the zari. Three tests you can do in a shop without being rude about it.
Craft · 6 min
Nine hundred hours: what hand zardozi actually costs
Broken down honestly — hours, thread, the frame, and the part of the price that goes to the karigar rather than to us.
Pricing · 8 min
Natural indigo bleeds. That is not a fault
What the first wash does, why the second is fine, and when a bleeding dye genuinely is a defect you should send back.
Care · 4 min
(07) Before you buy
sizing, lead times, and the honest bits
If it is not answered here, message the studio — someone who has handled the piece replies, during studio hours.
Every sari and every piece of cloth we weave ourselves, yes. Linings, drawstrings and blouse hooks are not handloom and we do not pretend otherwise. Where a piece is a blend, the product page prints the exact ratio.
Our sizes run true to Indian ready-to-wear but the cuts are relaxed, so most people take their usual size rather than sizing up. Every product page prints the garment's own shoulder-to-hem length; measure a kurta you already like and match that number instead of trusting the letter.
Fourteen to sixteen weeks, with two fittings. We will not accept an order inside twelve weeks of the date you need it, even if you are willing to pay a rush fee — a rushed zardozi is visibly a rushed zardozi and it is not worth what it costs.
Naturally dyed cloth loses a little colour in the first wash. That is the dye behaving normally. Bleeding that continues past the second or third wash is not normal, and if that happens send it back to us.
Yes, seven to ten days, with duties and taxes paid at checkout rather than collected on your doorstep. Made-to-order pieces ship insured and require a signature.
Bring or send it back at any point in its life and we will repair it at cost — a re-hem, a re-fall, a rewoven pallu section. We would rather mend a ten-year-old sari than sell you a new one to replace it.