About nayira
A founder's note
nayira started with a single Patola offcut that was too beautiful to leave in a drawer. It was not enough for a garment, but it was exactly enough for the front of a small brass-framed clutch — and once that first bag existed, the question became which other Indian crafts deserved the same treatment.
We now work with three: Patola weavers in Patan, mirror-work embroiderers in Kutch, and brocade weavers in Varanasi. Textile comes first, then the frame is built around it. Everything is assembled in small batches in India, which means quantities are limited and colourways come and go with the looms.
Nothing here is printed to look handmade. If the mirrors sit a little differently on your bag than in the photograph, that is the maker's hand, and we would rather keep it.
The three crafts
Patola double-ikat, Patan
Patola is woven in Patan, Gujarat, by families who have held the technique for generations. Every warp and weft thread is bound and dyed before weaving, so the pattern exists in the thread rather than on the surface. On the loom, the two sets of threads have to be nudged until the resist-dyed shapes meet exactly — a misalignment of a millimetre shows. That is why a length of true Patola takes weeks and never looks machine-flat.
Kutchi mirror work, Kutch
In Kutch, abhla — small round mirrors — are held to the cloth and locked down with a ring of buttonhole stitch, one at a time, by hand. The chain, herringbone and interlacing stitches around them are drawn from memory, not a printed pattern, which is why two panels embroidered by two women are never quite identical. A single bag front can be a full day's work.
Banarasi zari brocade, Varanasi
Banarasi brocade comes off handlooms in Varanasi, where fine metallic zari thread is lifted into the silk to build raised motifs. The weaver works from a jala or graph, counting picks, and a few inches of dense figuring can take a day. The reward is a surface that changes with the light rather than sitting flat.
Questions about a specific piece? Write to us — we usually reply the same day.