(February 28, 2025) India’s handloom traditions are rich with history, craftsmanship, and culture. For generations, weavers created exquisite textiles — opulent Kanjeevarams, delicate jamdanis, and bold ikats — each carrying the essence of its region. But with the rise of mass production, many of these heritage weaves have faded, and once-thriving looms now sit silent.
One person working to change that is Rajeshwari Karthik. A former IT professional, she left her corporate career in the UK to revive India’s disappearing textile traditions. Through her brand, Varnavastram, she collaborates with master weavers to bring forgotten designs back to life — whether it’s recreating a 19th-century natural-dyed Kanjeevaram from the Victoria & Albert Museum archives or adapting Uzbek ikat motifs for Indian looms. For Rajeshwari, this is more than fashion; it’s a mission to keep India’s weaving legacy alive and ensure these timeless fabrics find a place in modern wardrobes.
Rajeshwari Karthik
“These sarees are our pride. Handlooms are to be felt and draped with love and passion. I firmly believe that every woman should possess a few of our heritage weaves in our wardrobe to pass the legacy to our future generations, so that we can keep the craft alive for generations,” Rajeshwari tells Global Indian. A former IT professional who worked in London for a nearly a decade, she moved back to India in 2010 and started her brand Varnavastram (varnam means colour and vastram means attire) in 2016 to bring these vintage textiles back into common usage.
Working towards reviving the best of handloom textiles from different weavers clusters across India, the entrepreneur works alongside master craftsmen of a wide variety to aid in their resurgence—from the vintage Kanjeevarams to the time-honoured Ponduru jamdanis or the elegant ikats inspired by Uzbek and Cambodian motifs.
Today, the 40-year-old has passionately dedicated herself to preserving these traditional arts by collaborating directly with weavers and artisans, ensuring their techniques are passed on to future generations.
She also strives to create sustainable livelihoods for the communities involved, ensuing a deeper connection between heritage and craftsmanship. Through her relentless efforts, she hopes to ensure that these intricate art forms don’t fade into oblivion but instead find a renewed place in modern wardrobes.
Varnavastram
Bringing Forgotten Textiles Back to Life
Rajeswari has worked with weavers to recreate old designs and techniques that she found in textile books, whose examples were at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
“We recreated a completely natural dyed Kanjeevaram silk saree dating back to 1867, which originated from Salem, Tamil Nadu, and was transferred to the V&A archive in 1869. This silk has adai and meenakari work done by weavers in Kanchipuram, and it was dyed by a master dyer in Hyderabad,” she explains. Since Salem is her hometown, she was inspired to revive the piece using natural dyes and five grams of gold zari, working with a master weaver in Kanchipuram.
Among her most remarkable contributions is her Uzbek-inspired Ikat sarees. Traditionally, Uzbek looms are too narrow to create sarees, but Rajeshwari collaborated with the Pochampally cluster near Hyderabad to bring these bold, colourful motifs to life. The results are nothing short of stunning.
From Code to Craft: A Journey of Transformation
Having worked in IT for a decade in London, Pune and Chennai, she relished her work, especially in London. She recalls, “I worked as a senior developer and later as lead developer in logistics, creating software for yard and vessel planning, on international cargos.I handled both team projects and solo assignments, developing, testing, and maintaining large modules. It required a lot of skill, time, and patience, but it was a rewarding experience.”
Rajeshwari Karthik, the founder of Varnavastram
Her return to India was driven by personal reasons, not just the idea of starting a textile brand. While she had always been drawn to the craft, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that her commitment to handloom revival truly deepened. She shares, “The pandemic had a profound impact on me, especially as I witnessed the struggles of handloom weavers, many of whom were malnourished and unable to sell their authentic products due to shop closures. With no viable sales channels beyond online platforms, these artisans faced immense hardship. That’s when it struck me — why not contribute to preserving handlooms by supporting these weavers?”
She decided to work with master weavers who were struggling to sustain traditional methods and techniques that were slowly becoming extinct. Her goal was to revive vintage textile pieces while ensuring that the craft remained authentic and accessible. By offering high-quality, rare textiles at fair prices, the revivalist hoped to directly or indirectly support weaver and artisan families, helping them sustain their livelihoods.
A War Against Time: Saving India’s Dying Handlooms
“I have a very profound desire to work sustainably to revive the textile industry,” she shares and adds, “For over two years, I have been trying to recreate vintage weaves and overcome many challenges in doing so. Today, we are successfully doing what we set out to do and are ensuring that the woven heritage of our country lives for another generation.”
Revival is a tough art form. Especially in textiles, where one has to employ reverse engineering and encounter lost techniques to understand the original. The price tag which is necessary due to the technique and quality is also a deterrent in expanding audiences.
Rajeswari agrees and calls the coordination between dyeing teams and the weavers her biggest challenge. She adds, “Reviving archive pieces is something I find very challenging, especially for older weaves done in natural dyes. We have done a lot of research and groundwork on natural dye, including severe treatments of yarn, and it is also important that the yarns retain perfect tension while weaving; otherwise, it will result in the breakage of silk yarns, which will tangle the entire warp.”
Curating contemporary designs in traditional weaves is also difficult, but the entrepreneur manages that with elan, especially in ikat fabrics. Another highlight of her work is the motifs she uses, which are no longer currently in use: a lotus flower with eight petals, the yaali (mythological creature with head of the elephant and body of a lion), the rudraksha, apart from what was a staple of royal women—the majestic vairaoosi (zari pinstripes) weaved in complete natural dye kanchivaram silk.
Rajeswari refers to a lot of textile books and samples to figure out a graph on weaves and executes it. She confesses, “There is a lot of hard work involved as well as a lot of guesswork.”
Threads of Identity: Weaving Culture into Every Saree
As Rajeshwari Karthik reflects on her journey from an IT professional to a textile revivalist, her pride in preserving India’s woven heritage shines through. “My grandmother’s very simple cotton hand knotted Madurai sungudi sarees and my mother’s minimal zari Kanjeevarams are my first memories of a sari,” Rajeshwari adds.
Her dream for the future is simple yet profound: to see these ancient weaves not just survive but thrive in a world where fast fashion often overshadows the timeless. She states, “We owe it to our ancestors and to future generations to ensure that our rich textile legacy doesn’t become just a museum artefact. Every saree, every weave, is a living testament to our cultural identity.”
Looking back, she is proud of her journey so far, especially reviving the V&A Kanjeevaram, creating a natural dyed yellow saree with ten different colors using meenakari work. When not working, the textile savant likes to read textile books centered around revivals as well as books on temple architecture, apart from articles on plant-based natural dyes.
In the future, she hopes to work on other disappearing weaves like Sickalnayakanpet and Kodalikaruppur sarees, which were earlier patronized by royals of Tanjore apart from reviving more natural dye colors in kanchivaram silk with vintage weaves like adai, petni, korvai, and madras kattam, among others.
With each recreated masterpiece, Rajeshwari is weaving together the past and the future, and ensuring that our rich cultural legacy lives on.
Read a similar story of Ridhima Srivastava, taking Bihar’s handlooms global.
