How churidars and suits are made
From the factory floor to the home tailor — how a salwar suit is cut, stitched and finished.
Inside a factory making salwar kameez suits by the thousand
A walk through a large Indian suit factory — cutting tables, stitching lines, finishing and packing for the wholesale trade.
From fabric rolls to ready-made kurtas
How a big clothing unit turns bolts of fabric into finished kurtas: spreading, cutting, sewing, pressing and checking.
How garments are made in a factory
A short, clear tour of the garment-making sequence that every churidar and kurta goes through.
Sewing a salwar kameez from scratch
A pattern-maker shows the full garment — kameez, salwar and dupatta — from measurements to the last seam.
Kurti and suit cutting and stitching, step by step [Hindi]
One of the most-watched Indian tutorials on cutting and stitching a suit top at home.
Churidar pant cutting and stitching [Malayalam]
How the churidar bottom is cut and stitched to gather at the ankle.
Cutting a long Anarkali
How the flared Anarkali is cut in panels and joined.
Simple churidar pant cutting method [Tamil]
A tailor shows the plain method for cutting a chudidhar pant.
Fabrics, prints and embroidery
The crafts that make Indian suits what they are — chikankari, bandhani, block print, zardozi, handloom weaves.
Chikankari of Lucknow — Ministry of Textiles documentary
The official documentary on Lucknow's white-on-white hand embroidery and the women who do it.
Meet the chikankari artisans of Lucknow
A visit to the karigars at work, and how to tell real hand embroidery from machine work.
How a very costly chikankari kurta is made
Why fine chikankari takes months — the stitches, the hours and the hands behind one kurta.
Lucknow's famous chikankari in a minute
A short History TV18 clip on the craft.
Bandhani tie-and-dye in Kutch
The knotting and dyeing process behind bandhani dupattas and suit fabric.
Bandhani — the full process in Bhuj
A short film on tying, dyeing and opening the knots.
All about Sanganeri hand block printing
An award-winning documentary on Jaipur's block-printing village and its printers.
Hand block printing in India
A clear short film on carving the wooden blocks and printing the cloth by hand.
The wonderful weave of Chanderi
How the light, sheer Chanderi fabric is woven on handlooms in Madhya Pradesh.
Maheshwari handloom weaving
A minute at the loom in Maheshwar, where the Maheshwari cotton-silk fabric is woven.
Phulkari — the women saving Punjab's flower embroidery
A BBC short on the phulkari embroidery of Punjab.
How phulkari is made by hand [Hindi]
The Lallantop visits phulkari embroiderers in Punjab.
Kalamkari — a timeless art
How the hand-painted and block-printed kalamkari of Andhra Pradesh is made.
Why kalamkari is struggling to survive
The Hindu on the craft cluster at Pedana and its difficulties.
Pochampally ikat weaving
A documentary on the tie-dyed yarn and the looms of Pochampally, Telangana.
The suit markets, city by city
Wholesale and retail markets where churidars and dress materials are bought — Surat, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana.
Surat's suit wholesale market [Hindi]
Inside Surat's cotton suit manufacturers and wholesale market, the biggest source of dress materials in India.
A large ladies' suit factory in Surat [Hindi]
A designer suit manufacturer in Surat, from fabric to packed catalogue sets.
Ladies' suit wholesale market, Chandni Chowk, Delhi [Hindi]
A walk through Delhi's wholesale suit lanes — unstitched thaan suits and cotton suits.
Chandni Chowk suit wholesale — party wear and cotton
Another look at Delhi's suit market, fancy and daily-wear ranges.
Suit shops in Johari Bazaar, Jaipur
A shopping guide to the suit and dress-material shops of Jaipur's Johari Bazaar.
Shopping in Jaipur — Johari Bazaar and Bapu Bazaar
The two old-city markets where Jaipur's prints and suits are sold.
Shopping at T. Nagar, Chennai
Chennai's T. Nagar — the textile showrooms and street shops where chudidhar materials are bought.
Dress material wholesale around Charminar, Hyderabad
Hyderabad's wholesale dress-material and readymade suit market near Charminar.
Where to buy chikankari in Lucknow
Hindustan Times picks the Lucknow shops for chikan work.
Lucknow's oldest chikankari showroom [Hindi]
A visit to one of the long-established chikan houses in Lucknow's Chowk.
Cotton salwar suits at New Market, Kolkata
Kolkata's New Market and its churidar-piece and three-piece suit shops.
Law Garden market, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad's evening street market for ethnic wear and dress materials.
Ludhiana's wholesale suit market [Hindi]
Boutique-style suits from Ludhiana's wholesale market in Punjab.
Styles, fabrics and the story of the suit
What the different suit styles are called, how the garment came to be, and how to tell the fabrics apart.
Salwar kameez — the story of the garment [Hindi]
EPIC TV's Veshbhusha episode on where the salwar kameez came from and how it spread across India.
30 types of salwar suit, with names
A quick picture guide to the suit styles — Anarkali, Patiala, palazzo, sharara and more.
Georgette or chiffon? [Hindi]
A fabric company explains the difference between the two sheer fabrics used in suits.
The industry and the export trade
India's garment makers at scale, and how Indian ethnic wear reaches buyers abroad.
Inside one of India's largest garment factories
A long conversation and factory tour at a big Indian garment exporter.
Inside a top Indian clothing factory
A fashion-manufacturing channel visits an Indian factory making for international labels.
From thread to lehenga — inside a luxury Indian garment unit
How a high-value Indian ethnic garment is made, start to finish.
The business of textile and garment export from India
An explainer on how India's garment export trade works.
A kurti factory in Surat [Hindi]
A kurti manufacturer in Surat and how the trade supplies shops across India.