Keeping Kalamkari Alive: Nikita Shah on Craft, Culture, and Conscious Creation
Thu Dec 18 2025
After a brief pause, Chai Break returns with a conversation that feels like a deep exhale.
In this episode, Shwetha is joined by Nikita Shah — a multidisciplinary artist, textile designer, educator, and researcher whose work bridges the 3,000-year-old craft of Kalamkari with contemporary storytelling, community, education, and healing.
From living and learning alongside weavers in Maheshwar, to studying at NIFT Kannur and FIT, to founding Untitle by Nikita and hosting Fursat, a monthly workshop centered on rest and reflection through textile-making, Nikita’s journey is rooted in patience, presence, and purpose.
This episode is a powerful meditation on slow fashion, cultural memory, sustainability, and the quiet resistance of handmade work in a world addicted to speed, trends, and overconsumption.
What We Talk About in This Episode
Beginnings & Origins
Nikita’s early relationship with textiles, craft, and sustainabilityLiving within indigenous craft clusters across IndiaHer formative six-month graduation project in Maheshwar, working directly with weaversHow family memory, cotton saris, and lived experience shaped her artistic languageDiscovering Kalamkari
What Kalamkari is — and the pen-based, natural-dye, multi-step process she practicesLearning Kalamkari by living with weavers and printers in Andhra Pradesh for several yearsNavigating language, trust, and lineage in a traditionally gatekept craftWhy Kalamkari chose her — and the responsibility that comes with carrying it forward Untitle by Nikita
Why she founded Untitle by Nikita and what “Untitle” representsWorking with deadstock textiles and memorial fabricsCreating garments in NYC’s garment district as an act of preservation and careHow memory, craftsmanship, and sustainability are stitched into every pieceFursat: Community, Rest & Reflection
What Fursat means — and why the concept feels radical todayReclaiming the joy of waiting, tailoring, and intentional creationHow Fursat creates space for personal storytelling, emotional healing, and collective creativityCraft as a practice of rest in a culture obsessed with productivityArt, Healing & Sustainability
The connection between textile-making and healingTeaching handloom language at FIT and independently at universitiesWhy fashion should begin with textiles — not trendsThe missed opportunity in today’s over-the-top Diwali fashion cultureWhy handloom is still stigmatized as “not cool” — and how we shift that narrativeRelearning how to shop, consume, and dress with intentionThe Sari as Identity
Nikita’s love for saris and whether it was a conscious choiceSaris as conversation starters, grounding tools, and cultural anchorsHer involvement in the New York Sari Exhibit at the New York Historical SocietyWhat it meant to see the sari honored in such an iconic space☕ Rapid Fire (Chai Break Style)
How Nikita practices sustainability in daily lifeWhat she’s currently readingFavorite seasonHow she takes her chaiHer go-to chai-time snack
More
After a brief pause, Chai Break returns with a conversation that feels like a deep exhale. In this episode, Shwetha is joined by Nikita Shah — a multidisciplinary artist, textile designer, educator, and researcher whose work bridges the 3,000-year-old craft of Kalamkari with contemporary storytelling, community, education, and healing. From living and learning alongside weavers in Maheshwar, to studying at NIFT Kannur and FIT, to founding Untitle by Nikita and hosting Fursat, a monthly workshop centered on rest and reflection through textile-making, Nikita’s journey is rooted in patience, presence, and purpose. This episode is a powerful meditation on slow fashion, cultural memory, sustainability, and the quiet resistance of handmade work in a world addicted to speed, trends, and overconsumption. What We Talk About in This Episode Beginnings & Origins Nikita’s early relationship with textiles, craft, and sustainabilityLiving within indigenous craft clusters across IndiaHer formative six-month graduation project in Maheshwar, working directly with weaversHow family memory, cotton saris, and lived experience shaped her artistic languageDiscovering Kalamkari What Kalamkari is — and the pen-based, natural-dye, multi-step process she practicesLearning Kalamkari by living with weavers and printers in Andhra Pradesh for several yearsNavigating language, trust, and lineage in a traditionally gatekept craftWhy Kalamkari chose her — and the responsibility that comes with carrying it forward Untitle by Nikita Why she founded Untitle by Nikita and what “Untitle” representsWorking with deadstock textiles and memorial fabricsCreating garments in NYC’s garment district as an act of preservation and careHow memory, craftsmanship, and sustainability are stitched into every pieceFursat: Community, Rest & Reflection What Fursat means — and why the concept feels radical todayReclaiming the joy of waiting, tailoring, and intentional creationHow Fursat creates space for personal storytelling, emotional healing, and collective creativityCraft as a practice of rest in a culture obsessed with productivityArt, Healing & Sustainability The connection between textile-making and healingTeaching handloom language at FIT and independently at universitiesWhy fashion should begin with textiles — not trendsThe missed opportunity in today’s over-the-top Diwali fashion cultureWhy handloom is still stigmatized as “not cool” — and how we shift that narrativeRelearning how to shop, consume, and dress with intentionThe Sari as Identity Nikita’s love for saris and whether it was a conscious choiceSaris as conversation starters, grounding tools, and cultural anchorsHer involvement in the New York Sari Exhibit at the New York Historical SocietyWhat it meant to see the sari honored in such an iconic space☕ Rapid Fire (Chai Break Style) How Nikita practices sustainability in daily lifeWhat she’s currently readingFavorite seasonHow she takes her chaiHer go-to chai-time snack