ZIP KANTHA VEST

Kantha has always felt like the most instinctive kind of making, rooted in Kantha embroidery across West Bengal. Built almost entirely through a simple running stitch, it started as a way of layering and repurposing old cloth, turning worn saris and fragments into something functional, but also deeply personal. There’s no strict system to it, the patterns emerge slowly, sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, always guided by the hand. You can feel that looseness in the final piece, the slight wavering of the stitch, the way the surface shifts and settles. It’s actually how Kartik Research began, working with one off Kantha quilts, each carrying its own past, and over time evolving into producing new Kantha alongside continuing that upcycled program. It still holds the same spirit, something built patiently, imperfectly, and full of memory.