Long before luxury brands and fashion weeks, India’s looms dictated the rhythms of global trade. Their fabrics crossed oceans, dressed royalty, and inspired empires. Colonial rule and deliberate British policies dismantled much of this thriving textile economy. Today, India is reclaiming that legacy. As a new generation embraces sustainable fashion, could its ancient weaving traditions hold the answer?
It’s the first century AD. You’re in the middle of the Roman Empire, and Pliny the Elder is in a state of despair. Why? “Rome is all but bankrupt.” Pliny wrote in his Natural History that the empire was bleeding an astonishing 100 million sesterces of gold bullion every single year. And what were the Romans spending a chunk of their national treasury on?
Fabric. The jaw-dropping, ethereal textiles imported all the way from India.
Switch to the 17th century, where little has changed.
French navigator François Pyrard de Laval wrote in an account of his voyage that practically everyone from the Cape of Good Hope to China was “clothed from head to foot in Indian cloth.”
