Eka: The Craft of Heat and Dust
In Rajasthan, cloth has long served as a way of reading the seasons. As spring gives way to summer, the bright waves of leheriya begin to appear, their flowing stripes echoing water in a landscape where rain is precious. Produced through a complex resist-dyeing technique that gathers and ties cloth before dyeing, leheriya has been worn across the region for centuries, with different colour combinations marking festivals, celebrations and seasonal change. Among them is Samdar Leher, a palette associated with the arrival of spring that provides the starting point for EKA's Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Heat and Dust.
Chevron leheriya, inspiration for Eka's Spring/Summer 2026 Ccollection
The Delhi-based studio travelled to Sam, on the edge of the Thar Desert, where shifting dunes, desert shrubs and wide skies became both backdrop and source material. Rather than reproducing traditional leheriya, Eka draws on its underlying rhythm. Wave-like stripes soften into checks, chevrons dissolve into layered surfaces and block-printed collage panels suggest patterns shaped by wind rather than geometry. The effect recalls sand in motion, constantly redrawn by the elements.
Heat and Dust, EKA Spring/Summer 2026
Textiles remain the foundation of Eka's design process. Handwoven Kota from Rajasthan forms the basis of the collection, its fine square weave prized for its remarkable lightness and ability to hold both structure and transparency. Developed in the former princely state of Kota, the fabric has long been valued in India's hottest climates for allowing air to circulate while retaining an elegant drape. Here it is paired with cotton silk woven in Bengal, creating fabrics that respond beautifully to movement and light.
Block Printed fabrics for Heat and Dust, EKA Spring/Summer 2026
Heat and Dust, EKA Spring/Summer 2026
The collection's block printing reveals the depth of research behind every surface. Some garments are constructed using as many as 120 individually carved wooden blocks, each carrying motifs inspired by desert plants and objects gathered from the landscape. Printed layer by layer, the resulting textiles avoid the regularity of repeat patterns. Instead, colour accumulates like sediment, building irregular checks, stripes and textures that reward close attention. The palette of sand, haldi yellow, lime, indigo, washed blue and faded pink appears gently weathered, recalling textiles that have lived for years beneath the desert sun.
Heat and Dust, EKA Spring/Summer 2026
Since founding Eka in 2011, Rina Singh has approached each collection as an exploration of place. Journeys to Amer, Landour, Kohima, Ladakh and Chamba have all informed earlier seasons, with regional textile traditions providing the thread that connects travel to cloth. Working alongside managing director Sandeep Dua and craftspeople across Rajasthan, Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Kashmir, the studio continues to build collections through handweaving, block printing and embroidery rather than around fleeting trends.
Heat and Dust, EKA Spring/Summer 2026
What lingers after viewing Heat and Dust is the textile itself. The collection invites readers to look beyond silhouette and towards the processes that shape the cloth, revealing how weaving, block printing and regional textile traditions continue to inform contemporary practice.
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Further Information:
Read more about EKA in Selvedge Issue 124, Rural.
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Image Credits:
All images courtesy of EKA.