The Art Of Tailoring

In India, the story of tailoring begins not with scissors, but with handloom. For centuries, the weavers of Kutch, Maheshwar, Bengal, and beyond have created textiles so refined, their weft feels like language. Muslin once so fine it passed through rings. Khadi spun with the rhythm of self-rule. Silks dyed with indigo, pomegranate, iron, alizarin—natural alchemy passed through generations.

These fabrics were always meant to be worn close. Not just to the skin, but to the self. And so, Indian tailoring evolved not around excess, but around ease. The choli, the angarakha, the achkan—all cut not to dominate the body, but to move with it.

Structure, Softened

The modern tailoring of The Summer House isn’t sharp in the traditional sense. It’s soft-edged, slow-breathed.

Each piece holds a quiet discipline, whether it’s the way the pleats of the Amila Shirt Dress open with motion, or how the Cariad Trousers taper just enough to follow the line of the ankle without clinging.

Tailoring here is not only about fit. It’s about intention. There is no template, only dialogue. Between pattern-maker and pattern. Between cloth and climate. Between body and garment.

On a regular day, the confident sound of sewing machines provide the background score to everything else that occurs in The Summer House studio. The decades-long experience of every tailor doesn’t show in grand gestures, but reveals itself in the small, perfect things. A curved cuff. A clean inner seam. A hem that holds its own. It’s the kind of detail you might not notice at first. But once you do, you never go back.