Selvedge Textile Tour 2025: Week One - Polly Arrives
Selvedge founder and editor, Polly Leonard, has now arrived in India, ready for what promises to be a fascinating Textile Tour for 2025.
The tour officially begins on the 12th of February, but before attendees arrive, we welcome you to this weekly roundup of insights and discoveries from the region so far.
Polly’s first week in India has been an exploration of the country’s rich textile heritage, from the golden silks of Assam to the intricate Kantha stitches of Bengal. She has been immersing herself in the stories woven into India’s fabrics, tracing their origins, and meeting the artisans who carry these traditions forward.
Raw Muga Silk
Sualkuchi, Assam: The Land of Muga Silk
Her journey began in Sualkuchi, a town synonymous with handwoven silk. Here, she visited the Marvella Sericulture Farm, where wild Muga silk - a fibre unique to Assam - is cultivated. Unlike other silks, Muga retains its natural golden hue, which deepens over time. It cannot be bleached or dyed, making its radiance truly unique. Revered for its strength and UV protection, this silk carries Geographical Indication (GI) status, ensuring its authenticity and deep connection to the region.
Covered Trees in Preparation for Cocoon Harvesting
At the farm, Polly observed the intricate process of silk production, from raising silkworms - with 30% of the cocoons reserved for breeding - to prepping, spinning, and weaving the fibre. The silk moths lay their eggs on trees, carefully shielded from birds by protective nets.
Weaving Muga Silk at Marvella Sericulture Farm
She also explored Marvella’s weaving studio, where delicately spun threads are strung on fully functioning, antique looms. Interestingly, each loom in fitted with a scannable QR code, allowing each piece of cloth to be traced back to its origin in a fascinating blend of heritage and technology.
Designs by Sanjukta Dutta
In Assam’s contemporary design scene, Polly met Sanjukta Dutta, a designer blending traditional Assamese jacquard weaving with modern silhouettes, exclusively in silk. She also visited young designers Bidyut & Rakesh, who celebrate Assam’s silk heritage through their garment designs, and the artisans of Lahe Looms, whose silk brocades are naturally dyed, keeping Assam’s textile traditions vibrant and alive.
Kantha Quilt from She Kantha
Kolkata: Kantha & the Shared Legacy of Bengal’s Textiles
In Kolkata, Polly attended ‘Textiles of Bengal: A Shared Legacy,’ a conference and exhibition exploring the conversational art of Kantha (nakshi dhakni) embroidery. Traditionally made from layers of recycled cotton hand-stitched into intricate patterns, Kantha transforms the everyday into the extraordinary. The exhibition also showcased many original handmade sample swatches from India’s workshops, delicate jamdani-weave sarees featuring floating weft motifs, and Kantha pieces adorned with lahori and chevron patterns, each stitch echoing Bengal’s past.
Courting under a Chapma Tree by Ajit Kumar Das
At Emami Art, Polly encountered the work of Ajit Kumar Das in the exhibition The Bird That Sings Within, an artistic meditation on cloth and creativity. Das’s intricate illustrations, rooted in natural dyes and inspired by the poetic rhythms of nature, weave a story of tradition into handcrafted textiles.
A diorama depicting Indigo Production at the Indian Museum
She also explored the Indian Museum, delving into historic displays of fibre and material samples, marvelling at dioramas depicting the indigo-dyeing process, and examining artefacts that narrate India’s long and illustrious textile legacy.
Marigolds at the Malik Ghat Flower Market
Lastly, no visit to Kolkata is complete without a stop at the famed Malik Ghat Flower Market, where Polly found herself surrounded by mounds and mounds of marigolds. Here, she witnessed the rhythmic, meditative work of the flower men as they gently peddled their blooms to eager visitors and tradespeople alike.
Chikankari Embroidery Sample
Lucknow: Chikankari & the Art of Hand Embroidery
In Lucknow, Polly stepped into a city where echoes of the 1857 Siege linger, but so too does the delicate art of Chikankari embroidery. This finely crafted hand embroidery technique is applied to various textiles, including cotton, chanderi, muslin, georgette, viscose, silk, organza, and net. Conversations with Mamta Varma, founder of Bhairvis Chikan - a cooperative with a mission is to honour, revive, and preserve traditional stitches, motifs, and craftsmanship - led to a deepening of knowledge about this embroidery style. Traditionally, white thread is stitched onto soft, pastel-hued fabrics, but today, artisans incorporate coloured and silk threads, adapting the craft to contemporary fashion trends while preserving its timeless elegance.
Jamdani Weaving at Weavers Studio Kolkata
At Weavers Studio Kolkata, Polly observed the exquisite Jamdani weaving process. This cotton fabric is woven using a supplementary weft technique, where intricate motifs are handwoven into a fine, sheer base. The result is delicate patterns that seem to float on the fabric’s surface, giving it an ethereal quality.
Polly experiences Woodblock Printing
This was followed by a dye-clamping and wooden block printing workshop, where Polly printed intricate repeating designs onto a cloth of her own making. She also visited She Kantha, where contemporary artisans reinterpret the traditional craft of Kantha embroidery. Later, a meeting with renowned block printer Brigitte Singh provided insight into her meticulous designs, which have redefined Indian printmaking. And finally, to round of the week, Polly met Paola Manfredi, a leading researcher and advocate for Chikankari, who shed further light on Lucknow’s intricate white-on-white embroidery, a technique as delicate as lace.
Block Printing by Brigitte Singh
From the looms and silk cocoons of Sualkuchi, to the embroidery studios of Lucknow, Polly’s first week in India has been a tapestry of encounters, textures, and inspirations. As the textile tour officially begins, her journey promises even more discoveries in the weeks ahead.
Join us next Friday here at Selvedge Stories, where Polly’s textile adventure in India continues with more fascinating insights.