Selvedge Textile Tour of India 2026: Kerala, Bengaluru, and West Bengal

If Mumbai revealed the high-energy pulse of India’s urban textile culture, the following weeks unfolded more like a richly layered tapestry—one in which landscape, labour, and locality are inseparable from what is made. Moving south to Kerala, the rhythm softened but deepened, shaped by water, dense greenery, and centuries of global exchange.

Vijayalakshmi Nachiar at the Ethicus Mill in Pollach, Tami Nadu. Photo: Hashim Badani

In Fort Kochi, these entangled histories are impossible to miss. Once a vital port on the spice routes, the city carries traces of Portuguese, Dutch, and British influence, woven into its streets alongside enduring Indian traditions. A walking tour traced these threads through landmarks such as St. Francis Church and the Paradesi Synagogue, before shifting to the present day at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s foremost international art exhibition, where contemporary works respond to the country’s shifting social and political landscape. Visits to initiatives like Ethicus and time spent at Kashi Art Café added further texture, blending craft, conversation, and contemporary culture.

Coir processing Alleppey.

From there, the journey opened out. Kerala’s backwaters, explored by boat in Alleppey, offered more than a picturesque interlude—they revealed a way of life shaped entirely by water. A visit to a coir processing centre brought attention back to the raw beginnings of textiles: coconut husks stripped, soaked, and spun into coarse, resilient fibre. Tea with local textile expert Rani John provided further insight into Kerala’s distinctive textile traditions, often overlooked in favour of northern centres.

Kathakali dancer wearing traditional performance attire.

Performance traditions brought another layer of richness. At the Kerala Kathakali Centre, Kathakali’s dramatic, painted faces and voluminous costumes transformed the body into a storytelling device, while demonstrations of Kalaripayattu (one of the world’s oldest martial arts) showed how cloth must move with, and not against, the body.

Inland, the scenery shifted dramatically. The rolling tea plantations of Munnar, viewed from above during a helicopter journey, resembled a vast, living textile—ordered, textured, and intensely worked. Visits to a tea museum and spice garden grounded this landscape in lived experience, while a batik workshop at Aranya Natural revealed the alchemy of wax and dye, alongside the organisation’s commitment to creating meaningful employment through craft.

Crossing into Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, the focus returned to cotton, the backbone of India’s textile history. Here, participants observed cotton ginning and the preparation of a loom’s warp, as well as spending time with textile initiative Ethicus, where discussions centred on sustainability and ethical production.

Sericulture farmers – mostly from Karnataka and some from neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh – bring cocoons for sale to the market. Illustration: Peter Rush for Selvedge Issue 122, Winter White.

In Karnataka, Bengaluru and Mysuru offered yet another shift in perspective. At the Registry of Sarees, textiles were approached as objects of study and preservation, while the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) placed them within a broader artistic context. Encounters ranged from banana and water hyacinth fibre processing to private collections and intimate workshops, before moving on to sericulture farms, bustling silk cocoon markets, and the KSIC Silk Factory—each revealing a different stage in silk’s complex journey.

Discovering Kantha embroidery in Kolkata.

Finally, in Kolkata, textiles became stories in their own right. Alongside workshops in kantha embroidery and jamdani weaving, the programme wove in the city’s quieter treasures: an early morning visit to the flower market, vibrant and fragrant with marigold garlands; a cruise along the Hooghly River; and time spent in historic sites such as the Indian Museum and Victoria Memorial. Studio visits, including with designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, and stops at places like the Weavers Studio and Rangeen library, highlighted Kolkata’s ongoing role as a centre of textile innovation and preservation.

Together, these weeks brought a shift in perspective. The focus moved beyond the finished textile to the forces that shape it. The climate, the crops, the communities, and the countless hours of skilled labour are what emerged, not just a survey of textiles, but a vivid, sensory understanding of the worlds that produce them. From bustling markets to quiet workshops tucked far from view, India continues to intrigue and inspire.

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Further Information:

Read more about the Selvedge Textile Tours of India here.

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Image Credits:

Lead image: Malik Ghat Flower Market in Kolkata, photographed by Ken Hermann. Read the full feature in Selvedge Issue 94, Earth.

All further images as credited in photo captions.