Craft, Care and the Self: Fashion as a Reflective and Expressive Practice

Abstract

Craft has long been studied in India as an economic resource, a heritage practice, or a tool for rural upliftment. What has received far less attention is how craft functions as a practice of self-expression, ethical engagement, and relational care—particularly within Indian fashion education. This paper attempts to address that gap.
The study draws on semi-structured qualitative interviews with three practitioners: a craft-based designer, an embroidery artist, and a fashion educator, supplemented by reflective observation of expressive making workshops in institutional settings in India and Denmark. The paper argues that craft, as a relational and embodied practice, offers a framework for fashion educators to develop care, critical awareness and ethical responsibility in students.
The research studies Indian craft traditions, specifically Kantha embroidery and Jamdani weaving from West Bengal, in regard to care ethics, feminist craft scholarship, and material culture. Thematic analysis of interview data and field notes produces four themes: craft as negotiation of the self, slowness and embodied reflection, craft as everyday agency, and craft as relational care. The study concludes that fashion pedagogy at institutions such as NIFT would benefit from a deeper engagement with craft as a lived, socially embedded, and ethically situated practice, rather than primarily as a technical or heritage-orientated discipline.