Designers: Subhabrata Sadhu

Sadhu is a brand of fine luxurious hand-spun and hand-woven pashmina shawls and scarves owned and promoted by Subhabrata Sadhu, a textile designer based in New Delhi, India who believes in humane design by sustaining and nurturing the traditional craft techniques.

No machine process or machine spun cashmere which threatens the sustenance of a traditional craft is used while producing the shawls and scarves. All the yarns are hand-spun by the women of the house, which provides regular livelihood opportunities to the artisans' families. Each piece is woven with the purest and finest cashmere yarn carefully hand spun from the down fleece of mountain goats, Capra Hiracus that are reared by the Changpas, a nomadic tribe, in the high altitude Changthang valley bordering Tibet located in the Ladakh region of India.

The fleece is obtained by combing the goats before summer to avoid breakage in the fibers and is cleaned, washed, carded and spun by the women in Kashmir on spinning wheels very carefully to produce yarns that are extremely fine and fragile. No chemicals are used in any process to retain the inherent softness and character of the fiber.

The designs are made according to the traditional hand-weaving technique practiced by the weavers in Kashmir. Traditional weaves that are used are Sada(twill), Chasm-e-bulbul(diamond), and Gaada kond(herringbone). The colours and patterns are contemporary and each design is produced in limited editions to maintain the exclusivity.

Sadhu was nominated for the Young Creative Entrepreneur Award in 2010 by British Council, India