Rang Riwaaz

Rang Riwaaz Bespoke Designing | Heirloom Restorations

On National Handloom Day, we begin our series Weaves We Restore — a quiet documentation of the handlooms that enter our ...
07/08/2026

On National Handloom Day, we begin our series Weaves We Restore — a quiet documentation of the handlooms that enter our conservation studio and the histories they carry.
Today, we honour the Venkatagiri saree.

Woven in the town of Venkatagiri, Andhra Pradesh, this handloom tradition traces its lineage to the early 18th century, when these textiles were crafted exclusively for the Velugoti royal family. The sarees are known for their exceptionally fine combed cotton, feather‑light drape, and the restrained use of pure silver and gold zari — an aesthetic shaped by royal patronage where elegance was preferred over opulence.

The design vocabulary is equally dignified: delicate floral vines, temple borders, geometric linework, and minimalistic pallus. Every motif is woven, never printed — a testament to the precision of pit‑loom weaving and the discipline of the artisans who sustain this craft across generations.

As this Venkatagiri saree enters our atelier for restoration, we honour not only the textile but the lineage of hands that created it. Conservation, for us, is an act of preservation — of craft, memory, and India’s handloom heritage.

This series is our tribute to the weaves we are entrusted with, and to the artisans who continue to keep India’s handloom traditions alive.

31/07/2026

Taking you behind the scenes as we prepare and apply silk crepeline to secure the edge of a 19th‑century Banarasi dupatta.

In conservation practice, crepeline is selected for its stability, transparency, and ability to introduce support without altering the textile’s visual character. At Rang Riwaaz, each stage — colour‑matching through dyeing, finishing through careful ironing, precise folding, and finally hand‑stitching — is carried out to ensure that the intervention remains minimal, reversible, and respectful of the original craftsmanship.

This method allows fragile historic edges to be stabilised while preserving the integrity, drape, and woven vocabulary of the textile. Conservation is not only about repair; it is about safeguarding the narrative embedded in every thread.

At Rang Riwaaz, silk crepeline is used as a conservation‑grade support in treatments where stability must be introduced ...
27/07/2026

At Rang Riwaaz, silk crepeline is used as a conservation‑grade support in treatments where stability must be introduced without altering the textile’s visual or structural character.

Its sheer weave allows us to reinforce fragile areas with minimal intervention, maintaining fidelity to the original craftsmanship while ensuring long‑term preservation. This ensures reversibility of the conservation techniques and helps keep the original article unaltered.

Each material we select is part of a considered, conservation‑aligned methodology shaped by research, respect, and the quiet discipline of restoration.


25/07/2026

A close‑up view of this 19th‑century ceremonial beenjna, shared as a visual treat as it arrives to us for restoration, reveals the refined workmanship of late‑colonial North Indian ateliers, where hereditary zardozi embroiderers and metalworkers shaped luxury objects for elite households in centres such as Lucknow, Banaras, and Awadh.

Its repoussé silver handle meets velvet‑lined panels worked in dense zardozi and pure silver salma—a collaboration of specialised craft lineages whose techniques were passed from one generation to the next.

At this intimate scale, the celestial motifs reveal their full intricacy: a slender crescent moon rendered in chhilka sitāra setting, and a radiant sun unfurling its rays in padded zardozi. Both, like the rest of the fan, are embroidered in pure silver salma, whose natural oxidation has produced the gentle tarnishing now visible across the surface. This paired lunar–solar imagery, deeply rooted in Indo‑Islamic and syncretic courtly design, symbolised protection, cosmic balance, and the cyclical passage of time. Such motifs often adorned personal accessories used in ritual, bridal, or seasonal ceremonies, where objects carried both aesthetic refinement and auspicious meaning.

Seen closely, the floral jaal, lunar crescent, and solar rosettes form a quiet cosmology—an artefact that once moved through intimate spaces, catching light as it accompanied moments of celebration. This detailed view allows its craftsmanship to be appreciated in the way its original maker intended.

Time has softened its surfaces: velvet thinned by touch, pure silver threads drifting from their anchoring, the metal settling into a dignified patina. Yet beneath these traces of age, the original artistry endures with remarkable clarity.

This reel offers a detailed study of its fragile state before conservation work steadies the textile, consolidates the embroidery, and allows the sun and moon to shine once more with their intended quiet splendour.

22/07/2026

They don’t make these pieces anymore — so we restore them.

This vintage bridal dupatta is a piece of living history: dense gold zardozi embroidery on deep maroon chiffon, with floral patterns once handcrafted for South Asian weddings. Time and use have left tears and frayed sections, but the memories woven into the fabric are worth saving.

At Rang Riwaaz, we specialize in preserving heirloom textiles so they can be passed down for generations, not forgotten or discarded. Every stitch is slow, precise, and respectful of the original craftsmanship.

Preserving memories in textiles, one restoration at a time.

21/07/2026

Restoring an 1870 Hyderabadi Banarasi saree isn’t just repair work — it’s preserving a piece of living history.

This dark blue saree features a gold Mughal Boota motif, a pattern once worn by Hyderabad’s nobility during the Nizam era. Over 150 years, time and use had left a significant hole in the delicate fabric, threatening to break the continuity of the weave and the story it carries.

The process begins with stabilizing the damaged area using fine cross-stitches to prevent further fraying. A matching fabric patch is then carefully positioned and pinned, followed by painstaking hand-weaving where new threads are blended into the original structure stitch by stitch. The final steps — gently flattening the fibers with a wooden mallet and integrating the patch with a professional steam iron — make the repair nearly invisible to the eye.

What you’re seeing is invisible mending, a conservation technique that honors the integrity of the original textile without altering its character. It’s slow, precise, and respectful work, the kind that museum collections and heirloom pieces require.

Saree owned by . A reminder that heirloom textiles deserve a second life, not to be forgotten or discarded.

17/07/2026

This vintage Petit Point embroidery clutch arrived with its balance unsettled — one side’s white ceramic trim lost, the other holding the last fragile trace of what once defined its edges.

Originating in 18th-century France, Petit Point embroidery uses tiny diagonal tent stitches (half-cross stitches) over a single intersection of fine mesh canvas or silk gauze. With stitch counts often exceeding 400 stitches per square inch, it yields a smooth, painterly finish perfect for heirloom portraits, floral motifs, and lavish accessories.

In pieces like this, absence becomes a kind of asymmetry; the silhouette feels interrupted, the rhythm of the design slightly out of tune. Restoring harmony meant finding a material that could speak in the same soft, white register, yet offer a new kind of strength.

We chose a rare white Banarasi border, exactly 1 cm wide — a slender line of woven gold and ivory that carried the right proportion, the right quietness. Laminated to give textile the durability of structure, it became a gentle yet resilient replacement for the original ceramic trim.

With this new material language, we rebuilt the finishing trims for both sides, releasing the lone surviving strip and allowing the clutch to return to a unified silhouette.

A restoration shaped by proportion, restraint, and respect for the original design — returning not just the edges, but the calm, balanced elegance of the piece.

14/07/2026

When you realise that the sequins on the saree are woven within the saree and it's a Sequin boota weaving Kora Jamdani saree that you are restoring....we feel stopping everything and sharing these glimpses is worth it!

It was honestly a discovery for us 💫

Let us know if you had come across this elegant weave before in comments

Sequin boota weaving Kora Jamdani sarees are rare, collector's masterpieces where shimmering sequins are woven directly into the crisp, translucent Kora (organza/silk) yarn on the loom rather than being stitched onto the fabric later. This specialized handloom technique ensures the saree remains airy, structural, and perfectly balanced, allowing the translucent fabric to hold the weight of metallic Zari motifs and catching lights effortlessly.

11/07/2026

Some heirlooms carry extraordinary beauty but also extraordinary weight.

And when a saree has travelled across five generations — from a grandmother to her daughter‑in‑law, and now to her granddaughters who will carry the lineage forward — it becomes more than a garment; it becomes a family archive.

When a saree is too heavy to wear yet too meaningful to retire, we study it motif by motif, asking what truly belongs to your story.

From that lineage, we lift only the elements that matter — the zari that speaks of your family, the border that holds memory, the motif that feels like home — and rebuild a lighter saree around them.

This is not just inheriting. This is acquiring, shaping, and claiming legacy in a way that aligns with your aesthetics and your life today.




09/07/2026

An aspect often missed about vintage Banarasi saree restorations is the loss of clarity of motifs due to fraying silk from the woven motifs, here you see how the motifs a re redefined with single filament silk…

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F-27/H, Sushant Lok II
Gurugram
122011

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Thursday 10am - 7pm
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