For this autumn-winter season, we have chosen a cosy blend of handwoven wool-silk to create a thoughtful edit of Kantha-stitched pieces in our home textiles collection: our Kantha Quilt and Cushions. The hand-stitching technique used to produce Kantha textiles is ostensibly quite simple - nonetheless, there is no question that the craft demands incredible skill, care and attention to detail to execute.
There is a beauty to the slowness of the stitching that imbues the fabric with the story of its heritage. Kantha work, historically a vibrant patchwork of layers upon layers of discarded sari cloths in bold colours, has been traditionally done by women in the home as a thrifty way to revive worn sari lengths that had faded, or old rags to give them a new life – as bedcovers, mats or wraps to protect personal objects.
There is an inherently zero-waste philosophy in Kantha, as a beautiful way to repurpose fabric for functional use in the home instead of disposing of it. This resourceful and waste-free approach still persists in the craft, and the future of this rich history is continually woven with each stitch, patch and stretch of fabric that is sewn today.
