Tag: Fasion

  • The Hidden Cost of Cheap Clothes: What Your Fabric Really Tells You

    The Hidden Cost of Cheap Clothes: What Your Fabric Really Tells You

    The Kora Edit is a textile art project shaped by slowness, soil, and story. Each piece begins with nature, and ends in personal meaning.

    The Cost of Cloth Tells a Story

    The cost of a piece of cloth says a lot—about its origins, the energies it holds from its making, and yes, perhaps something about you. I’ll leave that last part for your reflection, and focus on the first two.

    Recently, while budgeting for The Kora Edit, I was content with the numbers. They felt fair. But something tugged at me—how were the clothes I usually buy so cheap in comparison?

    That’s when I remembered my visit to Sanganer, a town near Jaipur known for its exquisite block printing. Two things from that trip stayed with me:

    • The Making of Handblocks
    • The Paint Shops

    Handblocks: Skill and Time in Every Inch

    The handblocks in Sanganer are carved using traditional chisels by skilled artisans in small workshops. These blocks start at ₹100—but prices rise quickly based on the complexity of the design, the type of wood, and the mastery of the karigar. Commissioning a block is a costly affair.

    In Old Jaipur, we visited an antique shop. It had old, damaged, beautiful blocks made of strong wood, starting at ₹250. As we were leaving, the shopkeeper offered to show us ₹30 blocks—these were machine-made, carved from mango wood, designed to mimic craft without carrying its soul.

    Note: Weaker wood for blocks also means it is not meant/planned intentionally to last for longer lengths of printing, which means early discard and waste. Imagine how the wood demand changes just because fast fashion and ‘choice’ influenced the process of manufacturing the clothes.

    Paint Shops: Colour at a Cost

    The paint shops looked more like chemistry labs—only messier, scarier, and clearly harmful. Workers used gloves and makeshift tools to mix pigments. In one unit, I noticed how some of the workers had uneven skin tones on their hands—likely due to prolonged contact with chemical dyes.

    The printed cloth is then steamed to fix the colour and washed thoroughly. But let’s be honest—what you may be wearing right now could carry this exact story. And the cheaper the fabric, the more invisible (and likely unsafe) that process has been.

    And we haven’t even begun to speak about what happens to the discarded dye water or the harsh detergents used in washing.

    The Real Price of Mass Manufacturing

    Yes, mass manufacturing brings macroeconomic benefits. But it also causes macro damage—to workers, to water, to the very soil we stand on.

    Let me leave you with a question:
    If the full story of what went into your clothes was laid out before you—would you still choose to wear them?

    This question has shifted something in me. I want to wear what I own for longer, repurpose what I can, and now—through The Kora Edit—create pieces that hold story, craft, and intention from the very start.

    If this reflection stirred something in you, I invite you to stay connected:
    📩 Subscribe to the blog
    📷 Follow @bridgeandbloom.in on Instagram
    💌 Want to contribute or support the project? Write to us at info@bridgeandbloom.in

    I would love to reimagine how you and me touch and wear cloth.

  • Why I’m Creating a Textile Art Project (Not a Fashion Brand) with Natural Dyes and Rural Women

    Why I’m Creating a Textile Art Project (Not a Fashion Brand) with Natural Dyes and Rural Women

    Let’s get one thing out of the way:
    The Kora Edit is not a fashion project.

    It’s a textile art collaboration. A slow experiment. A process of remembering.

    And it began, quite unexpectedly — with a scroll.

    🌿 Where It All Started

    I’ve never been drawn to fashion in the conventional sense.
    For most of my life, “fashion” meant birthday gifts, maybe the odd saree from a family wedding. I didn’t grow up studying silhouettes or following seasonal trends.

    But I’ve always been curious about alternatives — alternate paths, places, philosophies.
    Bridge & Bloom, after all, was built around the idea of figuring things out — sometimes without a map.

    One day, while scrolling Instagram, I stumbled upon a beautiful couple living in the middle of nowhere. One of them worked with natural dyes and eco-printing. Their process was quiet, raw, real.

    And then I saw something that made me pause.

    A cloth that could be re-dyed by the wearer.
    Not discarded. Not replaced. Just… renewed.

    That single act — re-dyeing as renewal — struck a chord.

    Cloth As a Language of Self

    I started thinking about the freedom of cloth — especially in Indian tradition:
    Dhotis. Veshtis. Sarees. Angavastrams.
    Lengths of fabric that invite interpretation. That carry meaning. That express self — without being cut into a shape too soon.

    What if a garment didn’t have to be static?
    What if it could be a mirror? A canvas? A story in motion?

    The Making of The Kora Edit

    Soon, I found myself in conversation with a conscious designer from the city who runs a studio called Our Feets Can Cuddle — someone who has worked with natural dyes, prints, and thoughtful processes.

    We partnered with Rangrez, a rural skill centre outside Jaipur that empowers women through stitching and craft.

    Together, we decided to create 18 pieces — all free-size, re-dyeable, and rooted in story.
    Not fashion. Not trend.
    Just cloth, soil, and self — stitched slowly.

    What This Project Means (To Me and to Bridge & Bloom)

    As someone who’s been working in systems thinking, storytelling, and business design, entering the world of textiles was both humbling and exciting.

    It taught me new materials.
    New vocabularies.
    New ways of seeing beauty in the unfinished.

    But more importantly, it aligned with what Bridge & Bloom has always stood for:

    🌀 The joy of figuring things out
    🧭 The courage to walk an alternate path
    🤝 The beauty of co-creating with care

    This project isn’t about establishing a new vertical or entering the “fashion space.”
    It’s about doing one meaningful thing and letting it teach me something.

    As a byproduct, yes — it might open doors for new kinds of clients or collaborations.
    But that’s never the point.
    The point is the process.

    In Closing

    The Kora Edit is a gentle rebellion.
    It’s about slow making instead of fast trends, about collaborating instead of controlling.
    If you’re someone who loves material, memory, or making things with intention — follow along.
    We’re not here to sell a lifestyle.
    We’re here to remember something we already knew.

  • The world of Natural Dyeing

    The world of Natural Dyeing

    The Kora Edit is a textile art project shaped by slowness, soil, and story. Each piece begins with nature, and ends in personal meaning.

    Natural dye as a method is a process to express love to the fabric, an investment of patience.

    When I first started reading about extensive techniques and documentation about natural dyes, I realised that it is reveals the true nature of the fabric. The dye don’t lie. If the fabrics are not pure, the dye will show. If they are pure the dyes will speak. If the dyer is in haste, the dye yawns, if there is patience and love, the dye celebrates!

    The Process

    Sourcing
    Natural dyes can be done on 2 kinds of natural fabrics-

    1. Plant based (also technically known as cellulosic fibers) which are cotton, hemp, etc

    2. Animal based (also technically known as protein fibers) which are wool, silk, leather.

    It is very important to know what fabric you intend to use. This will decide a few process to get that amazing piece you imagine to have.

    Stitching

    If you plan on making your piece you can consider stitching first. Its good to also decide on the dyeing technique as some of them may need stitching later (eg: Block printing because it needs a flat surface). So yea, chose your pieces and a dyeing technique to make this call.

    Scouring

    Many a times scouring is considered ‘just washing’ the cloth. But that is a very superficial understanding. Scouring is actually cleaning the surface so that the dye can bond well. Its more like dealing with you old situations before starting to band with new ones strongly (especially when the new ones are vibrant and morally strong). You may find fabrics in the market that say Ready for Dyeing (RFD) or Prepared for Dyeing (PFD), but you still need to scour this.

    We scour plant based fabrics to remove the waxes and pectins (a plant compound that helps plant protect in the wild). To do so, we try to have an alkaline wash bath gradually heated to 80-90 degree celcius max. You use washing soda and mild detergent(Ezee) to clean off the surface thoroghly. Simmer the cloth for 1-2 hours. The proportions of cleaning agents depends on weight of fabric/fibre(W.O.F).

    For protein based fabric, the goal is to remove oils, dirt, sericin (in silk) and lanolin (in wool). To scour these, we have to be really delicate as the protein fibres are delicate. Never have water above 60 degree celcius (it should not boil) especially for silk. We need to have our bath slightly acidic(Orvus Paste). Gently heat for 30 to 60 min and do not stir for wool. Try to rinse it in a similar temperature water.

    So yes- this is just not washing

    Mordanting

    After scouring, rinsing and drying, now the cloth is ready for the next process which is not dyeing(yet). Mordanting is a method to add an agent on the layer of the cloth that allows the natural dye to bond strongly and deeply. This is a crucial step as it adds longevity to the colours and enhances the quality(like vibrance). Here are few commonly used mordants you could consider-

    1. Alum = bright & clear colours
    2. Iron = darker, moodier tones
    3. Copper = greenish or warmer shifts

    Sometimes dyers decide to have mordants that add colour! This makes mordanting a process of dyeing too.

    Dyeing

    There are so many ways dye a cloth, and here lies the true expression! your dying technique will also decide how you want to prepare you dye recipie and in what quantity. Following is the list to different dyeing techniques you could consider-

    1. Block Printing
    2. Eco Printing
    3. Full Dye
    4. Brush painting
    5. Naturalistic printing
    6. Resist Dying

    Resist dying is an infinite field to experiment. different cultures and traditions do it different way and are called different things. You may feel everything is the same from the process standpoint (and thats why it is clubbed under the umbrella of resist dyeing) but these have a very strong cultural significance and interesting enough that deserves a read!. For now, I am listing down some of them here.

    Types of resist dyeing

    1. Bandhani (Tie & Dye)
    2. Batik (Wax resist)
    3. Shibori (Clamp resist)
    4. Dabu (Mud resist)
    5. Stitch resist
    6. Screen Resist
    7. Ice Dyeing

    Take some time to sink in this. I would be writing more about each type of dyeing and how can you prepare your dyeing process for the same. For now, keep foraging, dreaming and doing <3.