Every few months, a news report says handloom weaving is disappearing. The usual explanation is that young people don’t want handmade cloth anymore, that power looms are faster, that machines have won. This explanation is comfortable. It is also wrong. Handloom is not dying from lack of demand. It is dying from two failures that […]
Why India needs to rethink the way we buy clothes — from fashion-first to climate-first Walk into any clothing store today and one question dominates our buying decisions: “Is this trending?” A new colour is trending. A new cut is trending. A new silhouette is trending. A new Instagram aesthetic is trending. And before we
Stop Dressing for Trends. Start Dressing for the Weather Read More »
This is probably the hardest question I’ve been asked since starting Handlooom.com. “If a handloom saree sells for ₹8,000 or ₹15,000, why isn’t the weaver wealthy?” At first glance, it seems like an obvious contradiction. Expensive products. Highly skilled artisans. Centuries-old craftsmanship. Yet many weaving families continue to face financial uncertainty. For a long time,
If Handmade Products Sell for Thousands, Why Do So Many Weavers Still Struggle? Read More »
When people admire a handloom product, they usually see the finished piece. A beautiful saree. A soft cotton shirt. An elegant stole. A perfectly woven table runner. What they don’t see is the invisible supply chain behind it. Before starting Handlooom.com, I assumed that if demand increased, production would naturally increase as well. That’s how
Everyone Wants Handmade. Almost Nobody Understands How It Is Actually Made. Read More »
Every IPL season, millions of fans cheer for players wrapped in one of the most toxic materials in modern textiles. Nobody’s talking about it. It’s time someone did. What’s Really Touching the Skin When Rohit Sharma sweats through a chase or Virat Kohli dives at cover, the fabric against their skin is 100% polyester —
The Fabric That’s Slowly Poisoning IPL Players — And the Planet Read More »
The global fashion industry has mastered one thing brilliantly: scale. But in doing so, it has quietly normalized exploitation—of resources, of labor, and of truth itself. The book Reset Fashion forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality: sustainability today is often more branding than belief. At the heart of the problem lies a system addicted
Reset Fashion: Why the Future of Sustainability Must Begin with Handlooms Read More »
Let’s be blunt: the days of “trust us, it’s sustainable” are over. Europe is about to demand proof — not marketing, not green labels, but data-backed, traceable truth. At the center of this shift is the Digital Product Passport (DPP) under the European Commission Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). And this isn’t some distant
The Digital Product Passport Revolution: Europe Is Forcing Transparency — Are We Ready? Read More »
💰 There’s something deeply unsettling about watching corporate applause while the world burns—literally. When oil prices rise during war, it’s not just a market reaction. It’s a signal. A signal that somewhere, supply chains are broken, economies are shaken… and human lives are being lost. Recent conflicts involving Iran have disrupted global oil supply routes like
War Profits, Burning Lives: The Ugly Truth Behind Rising Oil Prices Read More »
SHEIN just published a report. 15,000 customers. 21 countries. Branded as a circularity study. The headline finding: their customers are actually quite responsible. They wear clothes 50 times before discarding. They care about price. The problem, SHEIN concludes, is lack of recycling infrastructure. Convenient. Very convenient. Because what the report forgot to mention is that
SHEIN’s “Circularity Study” Is a Mirror. And India’s Weavers Are Paying the Price. Read More »
You’ve done everything right. You skipped the e-commerce platforms, ignored the mall boutiques, and booked a trip to the source. Kuthampully for the Kerala kasavu saree. Kanchipuram for the silk. Varanasi for the Banarasi. You figured that buying from the weaving town itself was the safest bet. What could go wrong? Plenty. Here is a
