Honoring the rich history and India’s heritage of traditional crafts, Prathaa(translates to tradition) is an attempt to bring one or more, any and many ethos of traditional Indian textile and non-textile crafts (such as but not limited to look, motifs, materials, layout, colors, or techniques) into commercially woven fabrics, amidst the production and economic challenges and limitations.



Menswear clothing industry in India, catering to that part of the population we unwittingly call a majority, has principally had a rather conventional perception of fashion and representation. While it is something which is also evolving into a more accepting and unorthodox vision, the mainstream textile and garment production industries are still lightyears away from naturalizing it.

Amidst a time like this, Prathaa is an attempt to introduce the essences of traditional Indian crafts into everyday menswear. Although not always, the notion of crafts and traditions is often associated with the feminine gender, and for men to don an attire representing that is often seen as making a statement or a bold attempt, and not something that just is.

Prathaa takes inspiration from the traditional Indian crafts in the form of their colors, composition, motifs, techniques or materials and translates them into fabrics with technical specifications similar to those of production-feasible everyday menswear fabrics.

In a time of seasonal collections, Prathaa aims to form a more rooted narrative by proposing creative cultural connections between wearers and their attire.



After several iterations with handloom explorations to get the weaves, weight, and materials correctly to pass the Quality Assurance tests, Prathaa was born.

The fabrics are made on dobby looms and not jacquard looms (jacquard looms allow more complicated patterns) to make the production process cost-and-time-affordable, and hence more accessible.

The limitations of using dobby looms was creatively challenging and opened opportunities to play around with the weaves and repeats. It was important for Prathaa to not act as an attempt of converting handcrafts into machine-made products, but rather act as a provocation for change in the menswear clothing field. The representational images of Indian crafts are from the book Handmade in India ➚ by Aditi Ranjan and M P Ranjan, and are not meant or intended for commercial use.