A women weavers' collective, met where they were and walked into the market.
Hands-on training with a women weavers' collective in Sahaspur — design, finishing, costing and market readiness for a refined, sellable product line.
Project brief
The Sahaspur intervention began with a simple observation. The weavers had the skill — the looms were warm, the warp was sound — but the products were stranded between two worlds. Too informal for premium retail. Too expensive for the local mela. We were brought in by UNDP to bridge that gap: to translate a generational skill into a coherent product line the modern market could read.
Across eight months we worked loom-side and in the classroom — colour studies, finishing standards, edge treatments, costing per metre, and the quiet, important work of pricing a product the weaver can stand behind. We introduced a shared design vocabulary, simple QC checklists, and a one-page costing template that travelled home with each weaver.
"For the first time I am writing the price myself, on a piece of paper I understand." — a weaver, after week six.
The outcome was a 14-piece capsule line — stoles, runners and yardage — costed, photographed and ready for market. Two retail conversations are now live; one of them placed a first order before the cohort closed.
Beyond the product, what stayed was the change in conversation. The weavers now talk about seasons, margins and buyers — not as buzzwords, but as everyday tools.
Photographs from the project.
Real photographs will replace these placeholders in the next phase.