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11th Grade · Junior Workshop · The Calhoun School

Where Cloth
Meets Culture

Tracing how South Asian textile traditions shaped, changed, and quietly live inside the clothes we wear today.

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✂️ About Me

Hi, I'm Viraat Sarwahi

I'm a student at the Calhoun School and a fencer, sewer, designer, creative, and storyteller fascinated by my heritage and all its intersections.

For my Junior Workshop I explored how many traditional South Asian crafts influenced, changed, shaped, and show up in the clothes we wear today, and how many of them get discredited and stolen along the way.

This project began with a question I couldn't fully answer myself: How have South Asian cultural and textile traditions shaped American and global fashion historically, and in what ways do these influences continue to appear in Western fashion and trends?

🧵 Sewing ✂️ Design 🪷 South Asian Heritage 📐 Fashion History 🌿 Block Printing 🤺 Fencing

🪡 The Process

How it all came together

From a question I couldn't answer to a jacket I actually made. Here's the rough version of how it went.

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Research

Digging into how South Asian textiles like indigo dyeing, block printing, and traditional silhouettes quietly made their way into Western fashion without much credit.

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Sketching

A handful of sketches working out the silhouette, the rice bag detail placement, and how to make a denim jacket feel like it holds two worlds at once.

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Finding the rice bag

Sourcing actual basmati rice bags — the same ones I grew up seeing — and figuring out what could be cut and worked directly into the jacket.

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Construction

Cutting, sewing, unpicking seams, and trying again. Building the adjustable back tab, the double pleats, and getting everything to sit right.

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Detail work

Cutting and applying the Royal logo, the Himalayas graphic, the #1 marker, and hand-stitching a "V" from actual rice bag scraps.

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Kardo Talk

Attending the Society of Cloth's Kardo x Kunal Merchant talk, which fed directly into the research and thinking behind this project.

📌 My Work

Sketches, research & process

A look at what went into this project, from early drawings to the Kardo Talk at Society of Cloth.

✏️ Sketches

🎤 Kardo x Kunal Merchant — Society of Cloth

🧵 The Sample

Type 1 Denim Jacket

Inspired by Americana and old Levi's jackets, but rooted in something much more personal: the basmati rice bags I grew up seeing. I cut and pasted those exact details directly onto the jacket.

Silhouette

A Type 1 denim jacket inspired by classic Americana and vintage Levi's, with an adjustable back tab and double pleats on each side.

The Rice Bag Details

The same graphics from the basmati rice bags I grew up with, cut and applied directly onto the jacket: the Royal logo and the Himalayas on the right upper panel, and #1 underneath the button pocket.

Personal Touch

A "V" initial handmade from actual scraps of the rice bag fabric, sewn into the back of the jacket as a final detail.

Material

Heavy denim with rice bag applique.

🌾 Basmati Rice Bag 🧥 Type 1 Denim ✂️ Americana 🏔 Himalayas Graphic

🪡 Final Piece

Coming soon...

Still being made! When it's done it'll have Kantha stitch embroidery on the cuffs, collar, and pocket, rice bag details on the panels and back, a cotton twill with plaid crosshatch inspired by the rice bag texture, and a full Madras checks plaid lining.

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⚠ CAUTION ⚠ UNDER CONSTRUCTION ⚠ CAUTION ⚠

🚧 Still being made! Check back soon 🧵

⚠ DO NOT CROSS ⚠ WORK IN PROGRESS ⚠ DO NOT CROSS ⚠

🪡 Contact

Say hello

Questions about the project, the jacket, or just want to talk heritage and fashion? I'd love to hear from you.

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Reach out and let's talk textiles, traditions, and everything in between 🧵

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Where ClothMeets Culture