The Transformative Power of Applique

Ahmedabad's Fine Design Applique Centre of Hirabhai Chauhan sells its appliqued handicrafts to a global audience and has transformed the lives of thousands of women, but it grew from humble beginnings and a chance encounter. 

Back the 1960s, Hirabhai Chauhan and his brothers opened a small wooden shop in Gujarat's most populous city where they made and sold clothes to the local community. The intention was simply to provide enough money to sustain the family. And for more than a decade, that is what they did, until they had a visitor who changed everything.

One day in 1976, a designer from the state government’s handicrafts emporium came in to buy an outfit. As she browsed, her attention was caught by an exquisite appliqued wall hanging made by Hirabhai’s brother, Shankarbhai. Sometime later, the designer returned and commissioned Shankarbhai to make ten appliqued ornamental cloths to a design she had seen in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. He rose to the challenge, more orders followed and before long there was more work than there were people to do it. Shankarbhai and Hirabhai knew there were women in Ahmedabad with the right skills, and many more who needed the money, so they embarked on a recruitment drive, offering training and a regular income.

And so a business was born, one which more than 50 years on, continues to preserve traditional skills, produce beautiful homewares and clothes for an international market and empowers local women by enabling them to become economically independent.

We invite you to come and see this remarkable store and meet the people behind the applique as part of our Grand Quilting & Textile Tour of India.