Udupi Handloom Saree

A cotton saree woven on Malabar frame looms for roughly a hundred and fifty years, and almost gone by 2018, with a handful of working weavers left across the two districts that made it. The Kadike Trust in Karkala rebuilt the craft around the Talipady weavers' co-operative in Kinnigoli, which became the first to use the GI mark in 2020; the count of weavers is now in the dozens, and every saree carries a label with the name and photograph of the person who wove it. There is no showroom: cloth is sold through the society and the trust's own channel, and a visit to the weaving shed needs arranging in advance.

A craft that was down to a handful of looms in 2018 and now counts its weavers in dozens