**Jamdani shirts @ Indian Peacock, Hyderabad **

Nine years ago, this 41-year-old Hyderabad-based architect ventured into the world of handloom with two questions: why do the finest Indian textiles and craftsmanship live in a cupboard, waiting for a wedding, and why does the shirt you wear to work come from a factory? “It made no sense because handcrafted fabrics breathe better, age better, sit better on the body, and stand out. But somewhere along the way, handloom got filed under ‘ethnic’ wear. This label shrinks centuries of tradition into a costume category,” says Preethi Pathireddy, who went on to launch The Indian Peacock “to pull handwoven and handcrafted textiles out of the occasion and into the ordinary week, the office, the airport, a regular Tuesday. Architecture and fashion start with design and my transition seemed seamless.”

Here, she retails tops, co-ord sets, kurta sets, and shirts, crafted by weavers and artisans across a few clusters: Mangalgiri weavers from Andhra Pradesh, jamdani weavers from West Bengal, ikat weavers in Telangana, and dabu and Bagru hand block printers from Rajasthan. “We develop our fabrics with them from scratch, including thread count, colours, and patterns. Our jamdanis and block prints, for instance, are woven and printed specifically for menswear, to our specifications. The garment production then happens in-house in Hyderabad,” explains Preethi.

Factors that have helped her keep prices in the affordable range. “I never wanted handloom to feel exclusive or intimidating. If we want people to wear handloom beyond festivals and special occasions, it has to be reasonably accessible to become a genuine everyday choice,” says Preethi, adding that their design philosophy also plays a key role. “We let the fabric do the talking, instead of relying on heavy embroidery, embellishments, or complicated silhouettes. We work directly with weavers and artisans, make everything in-house, and sell only through our website, avoiding marketplaces and their high commissions. This helps us keep our prices fair without compromising the craft.”

Indian Peacock’s styling tips

Catering to handloom for everyday wear also benefits artisans, she explains. “Occasion wear gives a weaver three busy months and nine anxious ones. Everyday wear gives them orders all-year round. Our core range is handwoven everyday shirts that don’t belong to any season.” Her latest collection, Mitti, is built around dabu, and it spans easy kurtas and shirts featuring patterns such as jaal, leher, kali. Upcoming launches feature fresh motifs and colour combinations in jamdani.

She is working on making handlooms accessible to the younger generation by “refusing to guilt anyone into buying”. She says, “The younger customer doesn’t respond to ‘save the craft’, and honestly, they shouldn’t have to. They respond to a shirt that looks good, fits well, and photographs well. If 25-year-old buys a handwoven jamdani shirt because it’s the best-looking shirt he owns, that’s a win,” she says. “Add to that, the fabric stands out, someone asks about it, and suddenly the craft becomes the flex. This generation genuinely cares about origin stories; they just want to discover them, not be lectured on them.”

Upwards of ₹2,290 on indianpeacock.com

**Mulberry silk dresses @ with N., New Delhi **

This apparel label began as an experiment between friends-turned-partners Nishtha Saluja and Nikhil Sanganeria. Neither came from a fashion background, but they often talked about how hard it was to find thoughtfully made clothes that were easy on the pocket. “Our first collection featured export surplus fabrics that were made on a power loom. As we started exploring for our next collections, we rediscovered handloom, away from the typical light we see it in, ie in the form of our mothers’ saris and traditional, festive wear,” says Nikhil, 32, adding how the duo co-founded with N. to reimagine everyday textiles in a contemporary light.

with N.’s styling tips

The brand, he says, started as a side hustle on Instagram in 2019. “I was working in the travel industry, and Nishtha was a full-time journalist. The brand’s idea stayed dormant for a while, but we got time to think more seriously during the lockdown. Nishtha finally quit her job in 2022 to focus on the brand, and I followed in 2024,” he adds.

The duo works with handloom weavers and clusters across India, with a large part of their work centred around West Bengal and Gujarat. With collections for men and women that comprise shirts, pants, tops, sets, dresses, Nishtha says their vision is clear: to make contemporary silhouettes for everything from work to picnics. “We visualise and look at the colours, motifs, silhouette, flow and texture of the fabrics before getting the final textile made. The idea is to be subtle and familiar while being wearable. Our inspiration and references come from all around: fallen flowers, tile patterns, heirloom pieces, random pieces of fabric we spot on the streets,” she adds.

Nishtha says their target audience is 26 and above, and their core philosophy involves working with handloomed fabrics that “use only human hands and clean dyes”. She explains that when compared to polyester-based clothing, handloom does require maintenance, but “the one thing clients tell us repeatedly is that our clothes feel cloud-like; they are lightweight and breezy". “This is because our signature jamdanis and the silks we work with are made of natural fibres with no trace of plastic in any of the textiles. Naturally, they age faster than most fabrics fast fashion relies on, and eventually decompose at the end of their life rather than sitting in a landfill. For us, that’s a trade-off, not a shortcoming. They need a little extra but basic care, and that allows you to wear them for years if done correctly.”

In their latest collection, a fresh silk edit, the duo introduced new mulberry silk colours such as ink blue, moss green, chilli red, lime green, and ash grey while exploring different blends like silk organza. “Our upcoming collection is our annual range, which is also our biggest in terms of the number of pieces. With this collection, we dabble a little bit in colour, and elevate our core styles in textiles including handwoven cottons in different weights and linens.”

Upwards of ₹3,300 on withn.in

**Summer weaves @ Banarasiya, Varanasi **

In 2020 Nilesh Agarwal wanted to take his family’s sari business to the next level by making the Benaras weave more accessible. “Our parent firm, MB Sarees, was founded by my husband Nilesh’s grandfather, and mostly dealt in raw material,” says 29-year-old co-founder Radhika Agarwal. “Saris have always felt unmatched to me; no Indo-western or fusion outfit comes close. Funnily enough, I once wanted to be a fashion designer before life took me towards management. But that early love for clothes and craft never really left me.”

Banarasiya’s styling tips

On joining the family business, she realised that even people who love Benaras saris often did not know much about them: how they are made, who makes them, and why they cost what they do. “There’s also an urgency behind making the weave transcend generations. The weaving is slowing down as cheaper fabrics take over the market, and we feel strongly about protecting this craft and its weavers.”

Radhika says they have been working directly with weavers for three generations. As for taking handlooms to the younger generation, she says the core idea is to bring the sari back into everyday culture by making it “soft, smart, and simple”.

“Benaras craft has so much variation within it that people don’t always realise a light georgette or a kora katan sari can make you stand out at the workplace, and that same lightness makes it just as easy to wear to a daytime function, styled differently.” She adds that the team is actively promoting modern styling by pairing saris with structured blouses, jackets, and tops, instead of only the traditional blouse. “We also experiment by combining techniques, pairing weaving with print, or contrasting the fabric against another fabric altogether, while keeping the Benaras element intact. Think bold colour-blocking, unexpected contrast blouses, or multi-tonal pairings.”

The brand’s recent Spring-Summer 2026 collection Lehr is inspired by the “gentle movement of a summer breeze” and features kora katan and chiffon saris. She adds, “We’re now getting ready to launch our wedding collection; Banarasiya’s take on bridal and wedding wear is inspired by the glow of a diya and every sari is in colours that hold and reflect light.”

Upwards of ₹7,000 on banarasiya.in

Ivory tones @ Ahmev, New Delhi

Kanchan Sharma says hailing from a humble background taught her early that “the most powerful things are rarely the loudest”. After training in fashion design from Mumbai’s SNDT Women’s University, she worked for fashion houses across India before launching her own womenswear label.

“Ahmev is named after the Sanskrit phrase meaning ‘I am everything’, but it isn’t a statement about the brand: it’s a gift to the wearer,” says Kanchan, who at 37 is the creative director, designer, and co-founder of the brand she runs alongside her husband Manish Garg, who leads operations and business development.

Known for their dresses, shirts, pants, and kurtas, Ahmev pieces draw from craft traditions such as minakari, mandana wall painting, and origami.

“The geometry, repetition, and transformation of these artworks get translated into contemporary silhouettes,” says Kanchan. “We work with a Chanderi weaving cluster in Madhya Pradesh, and a Fulia weaving cluster in West Bengal. We also collaborate with cotton and silk weaving communities in Fulia, a renowned handloom cluster known for its fine cotton and Tangail-inspired weaves,” she explains.

Ahmev’s styling tips

Designing aside, Kanchan feels that “holding the line on ‘maximum impact from minimum intentional detail’ when the industry around you moves toward speed and volume is a challenge. It takes real discipline — creative and operational — to keep every seam, every finish, even the inside of a garment, held to the same standard as what people see first.” Addressing misconceptions around handloom, she says the biggest is that handcrafted, detailed work is decorative. She adds, “For us, every seam, tassel and finish is there because its absence would be felt, not to fill space.”

Currently working on the Spring/Summer 2027 range, she says it is designed entirely in white, ivory, and gold with cotton silk, habutai, organza, organdy, kora cotton, and Chantilly lace. “The embroidery, print, and trim carry all the contrast, so the palette stays quiet while the detail does the talking. Silhouettes lean into fluid dresses and layered separates, built to move well,” she says, adding that tonal hand and machine embroidery alongside a jaal and a chevron screen print in white will be seen across select pieces.

Kanchan says what she truly loves about handloom is that with the right care, these garments “age well and can last for years”. “Manish and I focus on bringing the fluency to make something beautiful, and the rigour to make sure that nothing gets diluted as the brand grows. Our ambition was never volume — it’s resonance, with the right people, at the pace the work actually deserves,” she concludes.

Upwards of ₹5,000 on ahmev.in

Published - August 07, 2026 07:26 am IST