Colorful hand loomed cottons and block printed fabric made in India are among the offerings at Kristine Gupta’s Loom & Stars showroom in New York.

Walking into Kristine Gupta’s small New York showroom, Loom & Stars, is almost a sensual experience, starring handloomed fabrics from India. The textured softness of shot cotton; the gauzy beauty of a patterned white; the joyous colors of a rainbow check … one wants to touch and feel and drape everything.

A Love for Handloomed Textiles

Gupta, an ardent sewist who studied textile arts, fell in love with the beauty of India’s handloomed fabric while visiting her husband’s family there.

Growing up in Northern California, she made pretty things to clothe her dolls, tried “just about every kind of needlework,” learned to knit from her grandmother and has been making her own wardrobe since college.

In college, she worked at Lacis, which she called a “textile arts mecca” in Berkeley, Calif., where she honed her fine sewing skills and helped restore delicate garments and textiles. She moved to New York to attend Bard Graduate Center for a master’s degree in Material Culture, aiming to be a textile or costume curator. “That didn’t happen, but those years of studying art history helped develop my eye,” she says.

When she moved to a small city near Pittsburgh in the early 2000s, good fabric was difficult to find. “Stores were closing, and it seemed like all you could get was quilting cotton or synthetics. Nothing for fine garment sewing, so I started buying my fabric during family visits to India,” says Gupta, whose husband grew up in what was then called Calcutta (now Kolkata).

In India, she says, she found “beautiful natural fibers, amazing hand wovens made on traditional looms that I had only read about in textile history books, fabrics I cared about,” particularly jamdani, which UNESCO has designated “an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)” to acknowledge particular skills or arts that are part of a specific cultural heritage.

Jamdani, she explains, refers to a specific technique of handloom weaving in which designs are woven into the cloth while it’s on the loom.

“It looks rather like embroidery,” she explains, “but it’s actually a feat of technical skill to weave these tiny designs into a delicate fabric (often made of handspun cotton).”

While jamdani is made in various parts of India, it is traditionally associated with the cultural region of Bengal. “Our jamdani is made in West Bengal from cotton grown in North India,” she says. “These fabrics made me excited to sew again and I realized that others might love these, too.” And Loom & Stars was born online.

Gupta joined forces with her sister-in-law, Manisha Mohunta, an interior designer, who lives in Kolkata and has a friend who comes from a family of weavers.

“Every part of India has its own weaving traditions, but they make particularly lovely things in this part of India,” Gupta says. “I visit every couple of years and Manisha helps coordinate visits to weaving villages, finds new block printers, and goes around with me to get ideas.”

These hand block prints, made on cotton cambric, a machine-woven fabric similar to English lawn, are created in Rajasthan, India, at multi-generation family businesses. Gupta says the fabric is a little heavier than batiste, but lighter and softer than quilting cotton, and is perfect for garment sewing. See how they are made: A Look at Hand Block Printing.

Bringing Indian Weaving Traditions to New York

Armed with a grounding in textiles, sewing, and culture, but no business experience, Gupta took classes at a small business development center in Pittsburgh.

“I had no idea how to get started, and no clear concept,” she says, but her SBA mentor helped her make a business plan and taught her about costs, finances, marketing, and more.

Working from a bedroom, she opened Loom & Stars online in 2018 with about 300 yards of fabric, mostly jamdani, and some shibori.

“My customers were mostly longtime sewists who, like me, couldn’t find beautiful natural fiber fabrics.”

Her husband’s job took them to New York in December 2023, and four months later she rented a narrow 250-square-foot space in a historical Chelsea office building, which brought new challenges. She wrestled with display strategies (fabric doesn’t quite shine when it’s on a bolt), operating hours, customer service and more.

“I never had a retail job, so this is all quite new. However, it’s been wonderful to meet customers face-to-face, chatting with people to find out how they use our fabric, learning what else they want.”

The pandemic was another pivotal time for her – and for the weavers, who faced a double whammy: a decreasing need for high-end ready-to-wear clothing and a cyclone, which further disrupted their lives.

“The weavers’ work is precarious at the best of times because it’s subject to the whims of fashion,” she explains.

“In India and elsewhere, handloom (fabric) is often a luxury fashion statement that goes in and out of style. My goal is to provide weavers with regular orders, so they have a steadier source of income.”

The pandemic was difficult for Loom & Stars, too. For instance, some craft businesses did well, with people stuck at home learning to quilt. “People were not going out, so they were not sewing nice clothes.”

She added some Japanese fabrics, including the popular nani IRO prints, a brand created by the artwork of watercolorist Naomi Ito, to diversify her offerings. And for true connoisseurs, hand embroidered fabrics made by women artisans in Eastern India using traditional techniques and featuring upcycled materials on unbleached cotton.

Gupta started her business by importing handloomed fabrics from India, particularly jamdani, but has expanded her business to include some Japanese cotton/linen blends, block prints, and a few machine-made fabrics.

Challenges and Growth in the Fabric Business

Her business is constantly growing and changing. “I’m always learning; learning about fabric, learning about running a business. Now I am also learning from my customers about what they want and need.”

For instance, many sewists are looking for heavier weight fabrics rather than the fine weaves that she adores, so she is stocking more of that. Quilters have specific needs, she says, “which I, as a non-quilter, want to understand, so I can watch for things that will be useful and inspiring for them.”

Her biggest mistake, she admits, was not embracing social media.

“I didn’t understand its potential, and how important it has become. Social media seems the best way to get in touch with the sewing community. It’s a challenge to market an unusual product that people know little about.”

“My first customers were longtime sewists who, like me, couldn’t find beautiful natural fiber fabrics. Now that I’m in NYC and on social media more, I’m seeing a range of ages and interests: new sewists, quilters, textile artists, fashion students, indigo dyers, menders, people who are trying to opt out of the fast-fashion system. That makes it really fun and interesting for me.”

Photographing her fabrics is also a challenge. “No matter how beautiful, it’s hard to make a solid white fabric look exciting on somebody’s phone screen. In fact, that’s one of the charms of having customers visit in person, where people can touch and feel the fabric, and see it for what it is, rather than having to imagine it from photographs. We sewists are tactile creatures.”

Her husband, who she met when he came to U.S. for graduate school, has been a big supporter in this venture. “He understands my passion for sewing and fabric and has supported me, mentally, emotionally, and financially.”

Gupta still enjoys making her own clothes, although she has little time for it now. “But I always crave a needle and thread in my hand and in the evening, I often do some hand embroidery to relax.”

Her goals today are the same as when she started: to provide fine natural, sustainable fiber fabrics to the sewing community, and to support the weavers who make them.

“I think sometimes people imagine that handloom fabrics are something unusual, or delicate, or not for regular clothes. But now that people can shop in person as well as online, I hope I can show them that it’s simply good fabric. It’s beautiful and versatile, you can use it for your daily clothes, and you’ll love how it looks and feels.”