Samasta: A Dedication to Craft
At Samasta, craft is not a theme we visit each season — it is the foundation the brand stands on. Our name, drawn from Sanskrit, means “all” or “entirety”, and it reflects how we think about Indian textiles: not as a single weave or region, but as a whole, living tradition worth protecting, wearing and passing on.
Samasta began with its founder, Mridulika Menon. After a decade working with a Washington DC think tank — often in shirts cut from Indian silks, which drew compliments far from home — she returned to India and taught herself block printing by hand. The first line of Samasta garments found its way onto shelves at Shilpi and other stores around the country, and in 2012, after her daughter was born, she moved to Chennai and opened the Samasta boutique.
Two years later, she began selling sarees designed by her mother and mentor, Arundhati Menon, under the label Abha — a thread back to Arundhati’s own Shilpi, which she founded in 1980, and now part of the same family line of craft.
As featured in The Hindu — Woven into Madras
Working with the Weave
We work directly with weavers across the country, sourcing cloth at the source rather than through layers of middlemen. A Jamdani saree in our collection has usually come from a weaver’s home in Bengal, where the motif is woven into the fabric by hand, not printed afterwards. An Ilkal saree carries the red-bordered silhouette particular to Karnataka’s Bagalkot belt. A Kosa piece is woven from the wild silk of Chhattisgarh, its texture entirely its own. Each weave is sourced for what it is, rather than folded into a generic “handloom” label.
This is not a once-a-year gesture. For National Handloom Day, Studio Samasta hosted a Banarasi Utsav, bringing weavers from Varanasi into the store to share the stories behind their techniques — saris, dupattas and yardage, each piece carrying its own account of how it was made.
As featured in Indulge Express — Paloma about town: Threads, tides and social scenes
Partners in Craft
Much of this work happens in partnership. We collaborate with textile houses and studios — Kosala, Gulmohar, Kubsa, Unma and Marm among them — each with its own relationship to a particular craft and community. Kosala’s focus on Kosa silk, Kubsa and Unma’s work with weaving communities in Karnataka and Bengal, and the distinct sensibilities of Gulmohar and Marm all widen what we are able to bring to our customers, and widen the audience each weave reaches in turn.
From Loom to Wardrobe
Our starting point has always been simple: these crafts deserve a place in everyday wardrobes, not only in archives and exhibitions. That means translating handwoven textiles into ready-to-wear — sarees, blouses, dresses and tunics cut for how women actually dress today — without diluting the fabric itself. We hold to pure fibres and natural dyes wherever possible, and to construction made to be worn for years, not seasons.
In 2022, this thinking took shape as Samasta X Manavalan, a capsule collection of saris carrying dainty, nature-inspired bespoke prints.
As featured in Indulge Express — Samasta X Manavalan offers a capsule collection of saris with dainty nature-inspired bespoke prints
On Screen and Off
Abha sarees have since found their way onto screen — worn by actress Jyothika in her films, and most recently in Sudha Kongara’s latest movie.
That same textile language has found its way onto occasions beyond the everyday. For The Hindu’s World of Women (WOW) Awards, stylist Chindi of Pumpkin Tale came to us to convert a red Jamdani matka silk saree into an outfit for the ceremony. After a few trials, we settled on a strappy, square-neck pantsuit — smart enough to hold its own beside the saree-clad awardees — styled with a wheat-inspired double choker from Nalini, for that year’s WOW Entrepreneur of the Year. “Only after Samasta have I ever felt so well dressed,” Chindi told us afterwards — the kind of response that captures exactly what we hope bespoke craft can do.
As featured in The Hindu — Samasta’s Anniversary Collection