Awalkhana presents · The Chanderi Edit
Malakeh
An ode to the Chanderi weaves. The village wakes to the rhythm of the loom, and the khat khat of swift, gentle hands becomes the heartbeat of every saree.
The sarees
Thirty-six sarees
Each saree has its own name and code, for example Asharfi Raniyah 04. Hover over a saree to see the second photo.
Asharfi Raniyah 04
Name 01
Name 02
Name 03
Name 05
Name 06
At the loom
Where every Malakeh saree begins
The weavers of Malakeh
Rizwan Ahmad and Mohammad Waseem
Rizwan Ahmad
A young designer in a family that has woven Chanderi for five generations, in Bahar Sheher, Chanderi. He handles the ideation, designing and weaving of the sarees.
His family is the only one left among their community of Ansari weavers with the expertise to weave the do chashmi, a reversible saree with an exact weave on both sides that takes two to three months on the loom.
Mohammad Waseem
Weaving eknaliya Chanderi sarees since the age of 20, also in Bahar Sheher. His grandfather Sikandar Hussain began weaving in 1938 and wove for the Scindia royal family.
His father Shakeel Ahmad wove nal pherwa and do chashmi sarees for thirty years, and since 1995 has tied the silk warp, the taani.
The lookbook