SHOPPING IN AHMEDABAD

Gujarat's heritage crafts like bandhani and patola meet dynamic designs in Ahmedabad's fashion, jewellery, and home décor labels.

- Sohini Dey

Generations of designers have tapped into Ahmedabad's rich history of handicrafts, fashion, and industry. Institutions such as The Calico Museum of Textiles and the National Institute of Design are testaments to the city's vast bouquet of textiles and the influence of Gujarati crafts from bandhani and hand-block printing to embroidery. These 11 fashion, jewellery, and home décor labels showcase this deft and ever-evolving fusion of Ahmedabad's traditional legacy and its contemporary ingenuity.

TILLA BY ARATRIK DEV VARMAN

While Tilla's pret line is minimalist, Lakshmi—its ornate festive offering—features nods to Kutchi design motifs or classic Mughal architecture. The Vintage Project, a collection created from upcycled materials like patola, ikat, and mochi embroidery, is a standout. Yet another line of clothing repurposes leftovers into new garments such as the Sufiyan jacket with appliqué on patchwork, often seen in local quilts. Dev Varman finds inspiration in his home state Tripura, too, using risha, a handwoven textile worn by women there, in some creations.tilla.in

BUTTON MASALA

Founder Anuj Sharma's silhouettes employ joinery, an innovation that does away with stitching entirely and instead uses buttons or flat sequins and rubber bands. The technique is swift, and easy to dismantle and redesign, offering a sustainable model of fashion. Sharma designs dresses, blouses, and lehengas this way, occasionally even using the method to spruce up a sari's pallu. “We have always used textiles such as muslin and mul, but now we are also collaborating with ajrakh and tie-dye artisans,” he says. @buttonmasala