Selvedge Magazine

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Leh Article: For the Love of Ladakh Brinda Gill talks to Monisha Ahmed about her enduring appreciation of Ladakhi textiles Monisha Ahmed shares her thoughts on the textile heritage of Ladakh, in northern India. She lives between Mumbai and Leh, the main town of Ladakh, and has researched and documented Ladakhi textiles over the past three decades. Brinda Gill: Please tell us a bit about Ladakh. Monisha Ahmed: Ladakh, a high-altitude desert, is situated in the high reaches of the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. There is human habitation at altitudes ranging from 8,000 to 14,000 feet. The passes are much higher. The land is barren, vegetation sparse, yet the landscapes are spectacular, with the colours constantly changing, from purple to green to deep reds, especially at sunset. There is green cover and fields where human settlements are viable; a complex system of irrigation channels has brought water from the glaciers to make this possible. It is a unique place. From the 10th century till 1834, Ladakh was an independent kingdom ruled by the Namgyal dynasty, whose lineage hailed from Tibet. After 1834 it became part of the Dogra Kingdom, which included Jammu and Kashmir, then in1947 Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh became one state. In 2019 the bifurcation of the state took place, and Ladakh became a Union Territory. It has two districts: Kargil and Leh. The population is roughly equally divided between Buddhists (about 40 per cent) and Muslims (about 46 per cent, majority Shia), with Kargil predominantly Muslim and Leh predominantly Buddhist. Christians have been around since the late 19th century, as well as Hindus and Sikhs who have come in over the years. (...) Read the entire article on Selvedge issue 115, Pioneers. Please find the link provided in our bio.

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Winners Selvedge 12 days of Christmas giveaway Day 1: @blessstoriesindia - Laura Grabow Day 2: Wallace Sewell - Joanne Gourlay Day 3: @clarissahulse - Mary Haak Day 4: @charlknits - Katherine Goodall Day 5: @alan_oliver_weaver - Lorna Singleton Day 6: @jogordonknitwear - Wendy Havelock Day 7: @theshopfloort - Christine Lautsch Day 8: @looplondonloves - Julie Madeo Day 9: @beki_bright - Melanie Martin Day 10: @evassundaylinen - Kaye Ryan Day 11: @thamesandhudson - Bethan Williams Day 12: @janomeuk - Kerren Harris

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Ahmedabad Article: THE MANCHESTER OF THE EAST A journey into the history of Ahmedabad Ahmedabad, built on the eastern banks of the Sabarmati River in the 15th century, is known as “The Vibrant City” of Gujarat and is now developing on both sides of the river. It is located in Central Gujarat,18 miles from the state capital, Gandhinagar – Ahmedabad (Amdavad) in Gujarati, is India’s 7th largest city, with a population above 7.2 million. Ahmedabad city’s old settlement was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2017 and has maintained a rich heritage and traditions for over six centuries. The Islamic King Ahmed Shah laid the city’s foundation stone on 26 February 1411 at Manek Burj, Bhadra Fort. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) maintains and protects this site today. Ahmedabad is a morphed word derived from Ahmed and Abad. (Ahmed) the name of the founder of the city, and (Abad) is a Persian term meaning Prosperous. Thus we have a prosperous city of Ahmed. This city is one of the few worldwide with a long and continuous history of over six centuries. (...) Read the entire article on Selvedge issue 114, Regeneration. https://lnkd.in/e7_g6HCj

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Bengalaru Article: LOOM LARGE, Rethinking Handloom in India’s Silicon Valley Even before the events of 2020, the handloom industry in India was in crisis; there have been many initiatives that have attempted to rethink hand-made textiles in the Indian subcontinent. Bangalore (Bengalaru), a city projected to be the third fastest growing city in the world thanks to the success of its tech industries, seems an unlikely environment in which to find ‘slow’ textiles, but with water already scarce in the city, there are enough reasons and more to practice and encourage sustainable forms of textile production. First the crisis. The silk industry in Bangalore’s home state Karnataka, developed by Tipu Sultan, ruler of the 18th century Kingdom of Mysore and Karnataka, still produces nearly half of India’s mulberry silk. In normal times, the government run Ramanagara cocoon market, one of 26 in the state, sells up to 50,000 kg of cocoons daily and Bangalore’s Central Silk Board now supports the silk industry, improving methods of processing the raw material. In the suburb of Yelahanka, once dubbed ‘the Manchester of India’, silk rather than cotton is dyed in dark back rooms and alleyways with weaving done in small units on the ground floors of houses, not large mills. In the narrow lanes you hear a rising rattle, not the quiet rhythm of the handloom shuttle, but the deafening clatter of mostly mechanical and a few Jacquard ‘hand’ looms, where some 2500 weavers sit at looms for ten hours a day, not for a moment losing concentration. (...) Read the entire article on Selvedge issue 100, Anniversary. https://lnkd.in/gSWyh4UZ

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Kolkata Article: Flower Men, Malik Ghat Flower Market in Kolkata, photographed by Ken Hermann On the streets of Kolkata, time stands still. It’s a city still relatively untouched by the heavy hand of globalisation. Tradition thrives on every street corner. Nowhere is this more evident than the bustle and chaos of Malik Ghat Flower Market. Malik Ghat lies in the shadow of the Howrah Bridge, on the banks of the Hoogly River, a tributary of the sacred Ganges. It’s one of the largest wholesale flower markets on the planet. Two thousand sellers gather daily to peddle their blooms amid frantic scenes. The streets are lined with bowls and knots of flowers. Every colour, species and fragrance fused together, overwhelming the senses. Flowers are a hugely important part of Indian culture, used in everything from temple rituals to festivals and parties. The sellers take pride in protecting and maintaining every stem. They wander through the market, carefully avoiding collision while draped in hundreds of flowers. Their silhouettes mutated into a shape shifting mass of foliage, their magnificent garlands often appearing in stark contrast to their own dustry and sweatsoaked clothes. Nonetheless, there is a soft sensuality to these hardworking, stoic men. (...) Read the entire article on Selvedge issue 94, Earth. https://lnkd.in/eDrb4HJd

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY We publish one prize draw each day from 1 to 12 December, and the winners will be selected and announced on December 13. 11th day: Win a Sewist 740DC Sewing Machine @janomeuk For over a century, Janome has been a global leader in sewing machine technology, renowned for its innovation, quality, and reliability. Founded in Japan by visionary entrepreneur Yosaku Ose in 1921, the company revolutionised the sewing industry with the introduction of the round bobbin—dubbed "Janome" or "snake's eye" in Japanese for its resemblance. This groundbreaking design improved efficiency and speed, setting a new standard in sewing machine performance. By 1936, Janome established its first mass-production factory, and today its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan export machines to over 100 countries. As the world’s No.1 sewing machine manufacturer, Janome has sold over 60 million machines worldwide, including more than 2 million in the UK alone. Janome UK Ltd., founded in 1968 and rebranded in the 1990s, continues to lead the UK market with an extensive range of sewing machines and overlockers designed to inspire creativity at all skill levels. From hobbyists to professionals, Janome products are celebrated for their ease of use, affordability, and enduring reliability. Dedicated to empowering makers, Janome remains committed to innovation and exceptional customer service, ensuring that every stitch reflects their century-long heritage of excellence. Prize: Sewist 740DC Sewing Machine Janome, worth £750. Enter here: https://lnkd.in/eQq6gp9a Find out more and follow Janome: www.janome.co.uk @janomeuk

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY We publish one prize draw each day from 1 to 12 December, and the winners will be selected and announced on December 13. 11th day: Win a Book Bundle by @thamesandhudson Thames & Hudson was founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. Their passion and mission was to create a ‘museum without walls’ and to make accessible to a large reading public the world of art and the research of top scholars. To reflect its international outlook the name for the company linked the rivers flowing through London and New York, represented in its logo by two dolphins symbolising friendship and intelligence, one facing east, one west, suggesting a transatlantic connection. Today, still an independent, family-owned company, Thames & Hudson is one of the world’s leading publishers of illustrated books with over 2,000 titles in print. We publish high-quality books across ‎all areas of visual creativity: the arts (fine, applied, decorative, performing), architecture, design, photography, fashion, film and music, and also archaeology, history and popular culture. Our children’s books list is also expanding. Headquartered in London, we have a sister company in New York and subsidiary sales and distribution companies in Hong Kong and Paris. Today the group employs 150 staff in London and a further 65 around the world. Prize: Book Bundle Thames & Hudson, worth £300. Enter here: https://lnkd.in/eQq6gp9a Find out more and follow Thames & Hudson: www.thamesandhudson.com @thamesandhudson

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Jaipur Article: Blue Sky Thinking Nila House, Jaipur In the heart of the Pink City there is a house named in honour of blue. Nila House (nila meaning blue in Hindi) refers to India’s oldest natural dye, indigo. Founded in 2019 by Carole Bamford (perhaps best known as the founder of Daylesford Organics), Nila is part of the Lady Bamford Foundation - a charitable initiative of JCB (more often associated with yellow) - which works with communities around Jaipur and Udaipur, to encourage sustainable production and enhance business efficiency in artisan workshops, with a particular focus on natural dyes and handloom textiles. Nila stemmed from Bamford’s passion for Indian textiles, combined with the desire to make a positive environmental commitment in the country that she fell in love with forty years ago, and where today, waste water from the synthetic dying process has contaminated many rivers. A sustainable crop, indigo was once grown widely across India, producing shades of blue ranging from from inky-almost-black to summersky-blue. For the dyers, it is safe to handle, which is just as well as the process can be long. It involves fermenting the leaves of indigo plants, but the fabric does not turn blue in the vat. Exposure to oxygen is required. A drying piece of dyed fabric will slowly turn from yellow to green, to a deep dark blue. The length of time the fabric spends submerged does not dictate the richness of the colour, so the fermenting, dying and drying needs great skill. Too much fermentation, or not enough, or the wrong level of heat can destroy a whole batch of dye. (...)Laura Gray - Images: Lukasz Augusciak and Sine Bhola Read the entire article on Selvedge issue 93, Rethink. https://lnkd.in/emt-hYvb

Join Polly Leonard on the Selvedge Textile Tour of India 12 February-25 March 2025 The tour begins in New Delhi on Wednesday, 12 February 2025 & ends in New Delhi on Tuesday, 25 March 2025. An introduction to some of the people and places we will visit from the Selvedge archive. Mumbai Article: Dancing to the Tune of Bollywood Beth Smith looks at Hindi cinema’s influence on fashion Now, I love a rousing barn dance as much as the next person, but few MGM musicals, even the classics like SevenBridesforSevenBrothers, can compete with Bollywood (a term used synonymously for Hindi cinema) when it comes to scale, longevity and its enduring impact on popular culture. You may have detected a frisson of excitement in fashion magazines when Baz Luhrmann released his interpretation of The Great Gatsby last year: but compared to the legacy Bollywood can claim on the way people dress in India, and how they perceive their textile traditions, it’s a passing fashion footnote. (...) Image: moviestore collection ltd -- Article: Growing Market Fiona Caulfield, author of Love Mumbai, opens her address book Mumbai is the biggest, wealthiest, and fastest city in India and home to Bollywood, the Hindi language film industry which produces more than 1,000 films a year. The cosmopolitan megapolis is India’s commercial hub and its style and shopping capital, showcasing the glamorous fashion in India, as worn by celebrities: it’s also a wonderful place to shop for authentic regional textiles. The city offers an abundance of choice from chic boutiques to bustling bazaars, elegant design ateliers to crowded street markets. The Gateway of India is the city’s most iconic landmark and is the ceremonial entrance to the city, located in the Colaba area of South Mumbai overlooking the Arabian Sea. The monument is adjacent to the legendary hotel, The Taj Mahal Palace, which opened in 1903 and is a much loved institution in the city. (...) Images: Amba, Electric and bottom right Viola Parrocchetti, Women Weave Read both entire articles on Selvedge Issue 56, Hollywood. The link is provided in our bio.