Kantha

Jeanette Farrier Kantha thows

Kantha, is a delicately embroidered pattern evocative of nature and colorful and rich to look at, even an intellectual and political statement to wear. 

Centuries old, the Kantha style was created by the women of the area to adorn ordinary fabrics with bright and earth-like patterns for grooming. Though the translation of the word means 'quilt of recycled rag', the craft that is required to create these fabrics has in fact lent it a distinguished appearance as well as clientele. 

Kantha is made from layers of sari joined by a running stitch that makes it flow in diverse ways, in geometrical and circular patterns, so that it can be utilized both as utilitarian quilts as well as exotic heirlooms. Recently, with the big exhibition about Kantha at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the US has grown fascinated with this form. 

Its source is in West Bengal in India in Shanti Niketan, a small town known for its serene beauty expressed most famously by the poet, Rabindranath Tagore. It is now home to one of the finest art schools in the country, and thus contains a fascinating tension between tradition and avant-garde, between nature and art and between regionalism and internationalism. 

Anthropologie - Kantha style embroidered chair

West Elm - Kantha indigo pillows

West Elm - Kantha Pillows

West Elm - Kantha Throws

Tex: Wooly Eyes

Images: All images have been sourced from various places and none are a copyright of Raj Overseas.