Indian Textiles: Histories, Practices, Perspectives

With over 30 years of experience in handloom weaving and natural dyeing, Uzramma is the founder of Dastkar Andhra and the Decentralised Cotton Yarn Trust which supports cotton handloom from Andhra and Telangana. In 2004, she established the Malkha Marketing Trust to promote small-scale, local cotton yarn spinning. Uzramma is also the co-founder of Handloom Futures Trust, a research collective that looks into the ownership of artisanal knowledge, and the co-author of A Frayed History: The Journey of Cotton in India (2017).

Dr Meena Menon is a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (LAHRI), University of Leeds, and an independent journalist and researcher. She is a former Deputy Editor at The Hindu. Menon has a PhD on social movements from the School of History, University of Leeds, UK. She is the author of the books  Riots and After in Mumbai: Revisiting a City in Conflict in 1992–93 (2024), Reporting Pakistan (2017) and the co-author of A Frayed History: The Journey of Cotton in India (2017) and The Unseen Worker: On The Trail of the Girl Child (1998).

Rosemary Crill is a specialist in South Asian textiles and formerly a curator at the V&A Museum in London for 38 years. She has lectured widely and her publications include the books Indian Ikat Textiles (1998); Indian Embroidery (1999); Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West (2008) and Textiles from India: The Global Trade (2005), as well as over 50 journal articles and catalogue essays. Crill’s book The Fabric of India (2015) was accompanied by a major exhibition at the V&A Museum co-curated by her. She is currently researching the use of Indian textiles in manuscript bindings from Ethiopia and Armenia.

Dr Ritu Sethi is the editor of the Global InCH International Journal of Living Heritage and oversees the Asia InCH Encyclopedia. Her research and writing explores colonial and contemporary cultural histories, policy and sustainability. Her publications include Handmade for the 21st Century: Safeguarding Traditional Indian Textiles (2022); Embroidering Futures: Repurposing the Kantha (2012), and Painters, Poets, Performers: The Patuas of Bengal (2017). She serves on committees in India, Japan, UK, and Europe. She is also the founder-trustee of Craft Revival Trust.

Deepika Shah is the Director of the TAPI Collection — a leading private textile and art collection in India, which she has been associated with since its inception in 2000. Shah has a background in Art History and a master’s in Ancient Indian Culture. She has authored Masters of the Cloth (2005), a catalogue on Indian trade textiles, and curated  TAPI’s most recent exhibition, When Indian Flowers Bloomed in Distant Lands, in Mumbai (2023) and Ahmedabad (2024). Through her work, Shah seeks to bridge past and present, sharing the global reach and enduring artistry of India’s textile heritage.

Hemang Agrawal is a Varanasi-based apparel and textile designer, and the Creative Director of The Surekha Group. A graduate from NIFT, he moved back to his home city to train in handcrafted textiles after a stint in garment exports. For two decades, Hemang has worked closely with local and global luxury brands and large-format retailers. He co-founded Anjora, HolyWeaves and Hemang Agrawal — labels that embody Indian textile heritage in a contemporary apparel form, which are sold in over 30 countries. He has been nominated for the International Woolmark Prize and featured on Netflix’s The Creative Indians.

Dr Radhikaraje Gaekwad is a textile revivalist, researcher and philanthropist. She is the Director of Craft Design Society Art Foundation, Ahmedabad, where she works on aligning artisans with designers, and bridging gaps with the end consumer. She holds a master’s in Medieval Indian History and has been conferred an honorary doctorate degree by the University of East London for her work in the fields of culture, diversity and inclusion. Having married into the royal family of Vadodara, she also manages multiple philanthropic trusts and heritage conservation projects, and organises Urja, an artisanal fair.

Founder-Director of Apparao Galleries, Chennai, Sharan Apparao is a prominent gallerist with over four decades of experience. She is known for her sharp curatorial eye and interdisciplinary vision spanning craft, design and contemporary art. Trained in Fine Arts and having completed programmes at Harvard University and the Smithsonian, Apparao has supported emerging artists and experimental practices while engaging deeply with India’s visual heritage. She has led prestigious projects and curated destination art tours, and through her gallery, fostered vital dialogues between tradition and modernity in art.

The co-founder of the design label Abraham & Thakore, David Abraham is known for his thoughtful design philosophy rooted in material honesty, cultural nuance, and balancing innovation and tradition. Born to a Syrian Christian father and a Peranakan Chinese mother, his multicultural upbringing deeply informs his work. A graduate of NID, David has worked in leading stores across Finland, Milan, and New York, where he designed everyday wear for the clothing company Sandy Starkman. In 2022, he created garments for the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. Abraham’s works have also been exhibited at the V&A Museum, London. 

Jigmat Wangmo and Jigmat Norbu are fashion artists and co-founders of Jigmat Couture, an ethical fashion house based in Ladakh. They launched the label in 2010 after two years of rigorous research to promote Ladakhi textiles, craft, and culture. Using locally sourced goat, sheep, yak, and camel wool, their products are handspun, dyed, and woven by nomadic artisans using traditional techniques. The duo also run Ladakh’s first textile museum and lead curated events, artisanal projects, and residencies, fostering sustainable fashion and preserving Himalayan heritage.

Kallol Datta is an artist and researcher based in Kolkata who explores clothing practices across South West Asia, North Africa, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Repurposing donated garments that hold memory and history, they explore themes of labour, cultural sustainability, and research as production. Their practice centres on community, resistance, shared healing, and radical knowledge-making. Datta has exhibited internationally, curated the Kolkata Queer Arts Month (2023) and was a member of the curatorial team for the State of Fashion Biennale (2024). They currently serve on the Creative Advisory Council for the STOF Biennale (2026).

A leading Indian designer, Manish Arora’s vibrant pink and gold designs have been worn on international runways and by global celebrities including Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Aishwarya Rai. The first Indian to show at Paris Fashion Week and enter Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers, Arora was the former creative director of Paco Rabanne. In 2016, he received the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. Recently, he designed ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ virtual concert costumes. 

Monika Correa is one of India’s leading fibre artists, known for her experimental weaving techniques. Born and based in Mumbai, she trained at the Weavers’ Service Centre and was introduced to weaving by Marianne Strengell. After her first exhibition in 1972, she focused on commissions before moving toward abstraction, often dismantling parts of the loom to free threads, introducing subtle movement and texture. Her work has been shown at La Biennale di Venezia (2024), MoMA New York, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and is held in major collections including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; M+,  Hong Kong; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi and MFA, Boston among others.

Pradeep Dalal is an artist and writer based in Mumbai and New York. His works have been shown at Oakville Galleries, Art Cake, EFA Project Space, Callicoon Fine Arts, Sala Diaz, and Murray Guy among other venues. He co-authored Photography in the Sensorium (2021). His essay “Hand and Loom” was published in Wolf Tones (2022). Dalal co-chaired the MFA in Photography programme at Bard College, New York, from 2015 to 2020. He directs the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant in New York.

Dr Ismail  Khatri is a ninth generation practitioner of Ajrakh, a complex two-sided block printing tradition from Kachchh, Gujarat. After an earthquake in 2001, he led the relocation of his community of textile makers from Dhamadka to Ajrakhpur — a new village that he helped set up. Using natural and mineral dyes, Khatri combines traditional techniques with sustainable practices. His workshop exports globally. Recognised with a national merit certificate, a UNESCO Seal of Excellence, and an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University, Khatri mentors emerging Ajrakh artists.

Peter Lee is an independent art and heritage consultant and the Founding Curator of the National University of Singapore’s Baba House — a historical house museum. He has curated exhibitions on Southeast Asian material culture since 1998 across Singapore and Japan. His current exhibition, Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations of Art and Entrepreneurship, 1890-1980, is now on show at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. Lee hosts Channel News Asia’s history documentary, Mark of Empire. He also manages a family collection of textiles and 19th century photography.

Managing Partner at Fidus Law Chambers, Shwetasree Majumder is a leading IP litigator and strategist in India. A UDRP Panelist with the World Intellectual Property Organisation, she served on the International Trademark Association’s Board of Directors as its first Indian woman member from 2013–2015. She is recognized among the world’s top IP lawyers by several renowned international publications. She writes and speaks widely on IP and has recently instituted and argued India’s first GI dispute involving two countries.

Uthra Rajgopal is a curator and researcher specialising in South Asian textiles. She has formerly held roles at the V&A and The Whitworth, where she received the UK Art Fund New Collecting Award to build a collection of contemporary textile art by South Asian women artists. She has curated several major exhibitions including Beyond Borders (2017) and Fragments of Our Time for the British Textile Biennial (2023). Rajgopal has worked with Tamil and Kutch weavers and dyers, lectures widely and mentors textile artists. She is currently a PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University.