Bazaar & Bloom
A deep madder handloom sari folded to show the fine woven border running along its edge.

Malleswaram, Bengaluru

Cloth with an address.

Nine weaves, eight districts. We buy at the loom, so we can tell you the village and not just the state.

See what is in

Nine weaves · Eight districts

Where each one comes from

The nine

Every bolt in the shop comes from one of these nine. Pick one and it will tell you how it was made, and by which cluster.

Ilkal cotton woven flat — fine bronze warp stripes beside a deep red pallu banded in silver.IlkalIlkal, Bagalkot1 pieceChanderi silk-cotton in magenta, scattered with small gold butis above a woven gold border.ChanderiChanderi, Ashoknagar2 piecesMaheshwari cloth in deep teal with fine woven stripes running into a narrow zari border.MaheshwariMaheshwar, Khargone2 piecesPochampally ikat in indigo, its stepped diamond motifs feathering where warp meets weft.PochampallyBhoodan Pochampally, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri1 pieceKota doria showing its open khat square-check weave under a black and madder block print.Kota doriaKaithoon, Kota3 piecesBagru hand-block cotton — rows of small violet and rose floral butis on an undyed ground.BagruBagru, Jaipur3 piecesBagh hand-block print — dark paisley repeats on a cream ground between banded borders.BaghBagh, Dhar1 pieceKanchipuram silk in peacock blue, a gold mango buti woven into the cloth.KanchipuramKanchipuram, Tamil Nadu2 piecesBengal tant cotton in mustard, a woven gold border running along one edge.TantWest Bengal1 piece

In the shop this week

Sixteen pieces on the floor. Each one carries its cluster on the ticket; the prices are on the collection page.

All 16 pieces, with prices

Gold kuchu knots tied along the end of a sari, lit against a dark ground.

Kuchu knots, tied by hand at the end of a sari. The knot is the last thing the weaver does and the first thing that wears out.

Every ticket, every time

Four things we can tell you about any cloth here.

  1. 01The cluster it was woven or printed in, and the district that sits in.
  2. 02Whether it carries a GI, and which year it was registered.
  3. 03The technique — and what that technique does to how it wears.
  4. 04Where we cannot say. One cloth here has no village, and its page says so.
Saris in every colour stacked on a vendor's rail.

The collection

Sixteen pieces on the floor, each with its cluster on the ticket.

A weaver's hands at the reed of a loom, pressing the last pick into the cloth.

How it is made

Six stages between a bale of yarn and something you can wear.

A length of pink cloth carried out to dry in the open, held up against the wind.

The journal

What a GI tag protects, and how to spot a powerloom copy.

From the journal

Written because the same four questions get asked across the counter every week.

All four entries

Before a festival

Come early, and we can actually alter it.

Alterations run three to four days. Before a festival, closer to three weeks — which is the honest reason to come early.

If your event is sooner than that, call rather than write. We will tell you straight whether we can do it.

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