Our Product
style
Mehera Shaw’s style reflects a dialogue between cultures, a melding of histories and ideas. We strive for a fine balance of East and West, vintage and contemporary, in an artistic conversation that people all over the world can share.
heritage crafts
Each of our collections includes heritage crafts and indigenous stitching techniques. All of our printing and dying are done by hand, using traditional methods, and employing fair labor standards.
Stitching techniques are all couturier. We use many couturier design techniques as well, incorporating pintucking, pleating, and crinkling, to get greater texture on flat
surfaces.
Hand quilting and hand beading are found in many of our collections. Besides being innately beautiful, this kind of work, done in homes, provides a source of income for many women who, traditionally, do not work outside the house. It is also to be hoped that providing this kind of employment will ensure that the craft be passed on to the next generation and kept alive.
fabrics
Mehera Shaw works only with natural fibers — cotton, silk, and wool.
Whenever possible, we use organic cotton. When organic cotton is not available to us, we select material that has not been chemically treated after looming. Our cotton fabrics include voile, corduroy, velvet, and silk blend.
Our wool is hand loomed, and comes to us from Jammu-Kashmir.
Our silk selection includes dupion, matka, and tassar.
We use handloomed (khadi) fabrics in each of our collections. Gandhi Khadi
, as it is known in India, is produced entirely by hand, spun and loomed in villages, without the use of electricity. Gandhi’s inspiration — an authentic cottage industry
— was that millions of Indians, living past the reach of technology, could add to their incomes by spinning and looming in their own homes. With the use of pre-industrial technologies (the spinning wheel and the loom), Gandhi hoped that India could declare economic independence.
The khadi cottage industry is equally important today, as decentralized production continues to be a means by which villagers can earn their livelihood.
