Stories

Guides to dressing, craft, care, the table and gifting, written in our Ahmedabad studio.

Four cotton weaves photographed close up and labelled: open airy mul, textured khadi, smooth cambric and tightly woven poplin

Materials & Craft

Types of Cotton Fabric in India: Mul, Cambric, Voile, Poplin and Slub, Explained

Mul, cambric, voile, poplin and slub are all pure cotton. They behave nothing alike. A weave-by-weave guide with GSM ranges, breathability, opacity and drying speed, plus which one to buy...

8 minute read
An open wooden cupboard with neatly folded cotton and block-printed clothes on three shelves, lit by daylight from a window

What is Slow Fashion? A Plain Guide for Indian Shoppers

Slow fashion means fewer clothes, made better, by people paid properly. What the term actually covers, why India has practised it for centuries without the label, the five questions that...

8 minute read
An indigo dye vat photographed from directly above, deep blue-black with a coppery froth across the surface

Materials & Craft

Natural Dyes of India: Where the Colours Actually Come From

Indigo from a fermenting vat, red from madder root, black from iron and jaggery. The plants and minerals behind India's natural dye tradition, what a mordant does, why sixteen days...

7 minute read
Four folded block-printed kurtis laid on a bed with handwritten cards sorting them into four piles: keep, repair, rehome and rethink

What to Do With Old Kurtis: 15 Ways to Alter, Remake or Release One

Most cupboards hold six to ten kurtis that are not worn and not thrown away. A four-pile triage to sort them honestly, seven alterations a tailor can actually do well,...

11 minute read
An embroidered lehenga still sealed in its original boutique plastic, folded inside an open suitcase on top of a cupboard in a dim room

What to Do With Old Wedding Clothes: A Guide to the Lehenga You Will Never Wear Again

The heaviest, most expensive clothes most Indian women own are worn once and then stored for twenty years. How to decide what becomes an heirloom, what gets remade, what gets...

9 minute read
A wardrobe emptied out mid-audit before the rains, with sarees and embroidered pieces spread across the bed and rain visible on the window behind

Care & Longevity

How to Store Ethnic Wear Through the Monsoon: Mould, Silverfish and Damp, Solved

Indian monsoon humidity sits between 70 and 90 percent for weeks, which is exactly what mould, silverfish and musty smell need. How to prepare a cupboard before the rains, what...

9 minute read
Three labelled baskets side by side holding folded clothes, marked sell, donate and recycle

How to Donate or Resell Ethnic Wear in India: Where It Goes and What Gets Accepted

Most donated clothing in India is unusable by the time it arrives. What charities actually need and what costs them money to dispose of, how to prepare a garment properly,...

8 minute read
A green steel almirah standing open in an Indian bedroom, its four shelves filled with block-printed kurtis file-folded upright in rows of colour, boxes on the top shelf and fabric baskets below

Care & Longevity

How to Organise Ethnic Wear in a Small Cupboard: A Guide for Indian Homes

Indian wardrobes hold garments Western storage advice was never designed for: six-metre sarees, dupattas, heavy lehengas and forty kurtis. How to audit what you have, what to fold and what...

8 minute read
Folded printed cotton kurtas packed in a suitcase with white tissue and a cotton pouch

Dressing & Styling

How to Pack Ethnic Wear Without Creasing: A Practical Guide for Weddings and Travel

Roll or fold is the wrong question. Which fabrics crease, which do not, the tissue-paper method that actually works on embroidery, how to pack four wedding functions into one cabin...

8 minute read
Hands mending a seam on printed ivory cotton beside a spool of thread and brass scissors

Care & Longevity

How to Repair Handcrafted Clothing: Mending, Re-stitching and When to Retire a Piece

A split seam, a snag, a lost mirror, a hole at the underarm. Which repairs you can do at home with four items, which need a tailor, how to fix...

9 minute read
Block-printed indigo cloth with a fresh spill beside a bowl of cold water and a folded white blotting cloth — how to remove stains from ethnic wear, House of Falguni

Care & Longevity

How to Remove Stains from Ethnic Wear: Silk, Cotton, Block Print and Embroidery

Haldi, oil, deodorant, chai, colour bleed and sweat marks, handled by stain type and by fabric. What to do in the first sixty seconds, what never to use on hand-dyed...

8 minute read
Ten-piece capsule ethnic wardrobe flat lay with kurtas, trousers, an Ajrakh stole, an ikat tote and three pairs of earrings — House of Falguni

Dressing & Styling

How to Build a Capsule Ethnic Wardrobe: 10 Pieces That Carry a Whole Year

A capsule ethnic wardrobe is ten pieces that combine into far more outfits than ten. The buying order that works, why neutrals belong in the base and colour in the...

8 minute read
Old silk sarees folded and stacked in a wooden cupboard in warm light — what to do with old sarees, House of Falguni

What to Do With Old Sarees: 12 Ways to Give One a Second Life

Most Indian homes hold sarees nobody wears and nobody can bear to give away. Twelve ways to put them back into use, from kurtas and co-ords to cushion covers and...

9 minute read