From The Editor : Kriti Handloom Edit 2025
- Sumana Mukherjee
- Nov 5
- 2 min read
Continuing with the tradition of sharing the editorial letters, here is the one from our most cherished edition yet—The Handloom Edit.
There exists a group of humans in our Universe who could be credited for filling up the cosmic RAM with consciousness. This Handloom edition is a series of conversations with a subset of such people, responsible for filtering out noise and adding meaning to our sartorial
lives. Thanks to them, putting this together has been far from a challenge, making me wonder if ‘challenge’ itself has become a buzzword.
We begin with a tribute to PadmaShri Biren Kumar Basak, who has been one of the strongest forces behind keeping our handloom legacies alive. Our cover story features Kiniho by Iba—a brand that’s gaining visibility with their Eri Silk Jainsem collections. Iba Mallai and her Ri-Bhoi community are about to complete a decade of making garments that SEO wants us to call sustainable, swiping away the fact that this Meghalayan community never wanted to wage a war against Nature. While AI tools have been efficiently popping up definitions of Tana Bana, Jamdani, Ikat ,and Paithani, we have made an attempt to uncover the mantle layer of these crafts. Narrating their incredible stories are Bailou, Asha Gautam, Bunavat, and Jaipur Rugs—brands that have been successfully balancing their profound creativity with the operational demands of running enterprises. Sharing the digital space with them are promising homegrown labels—The Saffron House, Nupi by Nivedita, And Arras by Unmana.
Our special feature in this edition is ‘The Looms of the Land” — a co-creation project by the students and faculty at NIFT Gandhinagar, Development Commissioner (Handlooms & Handicrafts), and Sahri weaving cluster in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh.
The common threads binding them all together are the determination to respect their culture, and not let the knowledge of our weaving traditions disappear with changing times. The meteor of mechanisation may have hit the landscape, but it failed to turn the warp and weft into complete ashes.
Immense gratitude to Satyaki Chanda for personifying artistry since we were teens, Manasvi Agarwal for wearing a magical lens that perceives the world with sense and sensibility, Manoswita Das Sharma for combining her literary pursuits with journalistic vigour, and Chahat Wahi for making her IQ and EQ compete to outshine each other everyday.
Hope you keep this edition in your digital archives.
By Sumana Mukherjee, Editor-in-Chief (Kriti Magazine)
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