27/05/2026
My grandparents used to speak about "Baft Hawa" when I was a child. Back then, I could never truly understand what they meant by “woven air.”
Years later, when I started practicing textiles, I slowly began to understand the lost poetry of this "woven air" - Dhaka Muslin. That feeling stayed with me, and I decided to recreate it from scratch.
After 22 months of relentless research, spinning, weaving, and failures, we finally achieved this Baft Hawa — the woven air of Dhaka Muslin. We aimed for 500 count, but reality humbled us at 460 count. My dream is still to reach 700 count someday, and I will try again. But for now, this 2.5-meter piece stands as a tribute to a forgotten legacy.
The muslin carries knots and needle work made by 8 artisans for 1820 individual hrs inspired by the stories of Bengal — representing the Meghna riverfront, the boats that once carried these fabrics, and the cotton-growing regions where the legendary Phuti Karpas once bloomed around Kapasia, Sonargaon, Rupganj, Titabari, and the banks near present-day Dhaka in Bangladesh.
From these riverbanks, the muslin travelled by boat to nearby ports and eventually found its way to Europe — carrying with it the skill, patience, and soul of an entire civilization.
Some textiles are not just fabrics.
They are memory, air, water, and time woven together.
- AVISHEK MANDAL
