Today, Indian handicrafts and textiles are keeping up with the times as a wave of new-generation artists and entrepreneurs have found a way to make traditional crafts in a contemporary style. They are rooted in the belief in sustainability and being local. We drew up a list of brands that are making Indian crafts the next big trend.

Indian crafts made cool

These lunar-esque coffee tables and sculptural, suspended shelves are designed by architects Nehit Vij and Devyani Gupta, who set up their experimental studio with a mission to combine craft and modern furniture. For their first collection, Lehar, they used design-modelling software to create wave-shaped concrete pieces and retrained traditional rattan weavers from Uttar Pradesh to make parametric textures. Website

Mianzi

This prize-winning outfit produces lights, home accessories and slick modular furniture using the craft of bamboo weaving from India’s north-east states. “As a child, I spent a lot of time in my grandfather’s rickshaw repair workshop, watching him solve problems with his hands,” says its industrial-designer founder Shashank Gautam, who has also created a prototype for a bamboo e-bike. Website

Ikkis

Gunjan Gupta’s collectible chairs have been displayed at Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and the Vitra Schaudepot in Germany. She is known for sleek products that are machine-made and then finished by hand—terracotta-coated brass jugs, hand-enamelled chai cups Champagne flutes and brass-and-marble bucket vases. Limited-edition pieces made in collaboration with master crafters include stone carvings, bidri (metal) work and terracotta pottery. Now she has launched Ikkis, an accessible homeware line that blends the Indian aesthetic with international style. Website

Orvi

This Jaipur-based homeware brand works with lesser-known crafts such as tarkashi—for which copper or silver wire is inlaid into wood, micro mosaic and Japanese raku-fired pottery. Founder Sanjeev Agrawal wanted to help artisans in danger of losing their livelihoods and invested in research and development to introduce technology to age-old crafts. “People love handcrafted things but you need to give them the right aesthetic,” he says. The bestsellers are intricate floors and surfaces, inlay furniture, bookends and vases. Website

Karthik Vaidyanathan’s Bengaluru boutique is filled with an innovative homeware range inspired by 200-year-old Channapatna lacquer work: paper-towel holders; door stoppers; bar accessories—all gleaming with natural dyes in tones of mustard, indigo and forest green. His toy collection goes beyond decorative dolls to make engaging games based on Montessori and Waldorf philosophies

Stocked at London stores like Harrods and Browns, this menswear brand subtly mixes textile crafts such as chikankari and ikat with contemporary resort-wear shapes. It is known for its breezy separates in breathable fabrics including cotton, silk and linen. Founders Adam Shapiro, Dan May and Gautam Rajani visited more than 27 factories, weavers and artisans all over India before launching, and they work with the Sangraha Institute in Lucknow to produce playful motifs such as palm trees in traditional needlework. Website

Boond Fragrances

Siblings Krati and Varun Tandon started this label in their hometown of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, a place regarded as the perfume capital of India, in 2021. The brand links makers of ittr, perfumes made with the thousand-year-old deg bhapka method of distilling petals, with new sources of income. The deeply nostalgic scents include motiya (jasmine), maati (petrichor), khus (vetiver) and gulabi (Indian rose). They are sold in boxes wrapped in handmade paper, with a hand-written poem penned by the duo’s father.

(With Input Feeds)