Kara’s design aesthetic incorporates a lot of traditional Kerala patterns, which are innately modern and different from the more familiar Indian motifs on the market. It was a happy accident that Chitra and Indu’s personal leaning toward a clean, modern aesthetic and the traditional patterns they were inspired by lent themselves to the successfully marriage between tradition and contemporary forms evident in their collection.

Their design process is multi-faceted: Indu and Chitra bring up ideas to each other about a new product, discuss the pros and cons of it, do lots of research and sketches of patterns and try out a few samples to see how it functions. There is often a lot of back and forth with the weaving co-op during the development, since Chitra and Indu respect their skills as the true masters of this yarn.

One aspect the ladies love to share is about the speed of handloom production. The pre-looming, which is everything before the weaver actually weaves the patterns at the loom, is one of the most overlooked and yet the most labor-intensive processes. It is also weather dependent, as the yarn is sun-dried prior to spinning it onto the spindles. It can take anywhere from a week to ten days to have a medium sized loom up and running – a step buyers are always made conscious of.

This pre-looming is also the most critical step as it determines how wide the fabric will be woven, what patterns and colors will be in the weave and how much time a certain piece will take to create. It is also a detail that they love documenting - as evident in their Instagram feed - and discussing with their co-op teams.

Thanks for your time Chitra - much success ahead!