Cut for a colder winter
Cloth bought in Coimbatore, cut to a pattern block made for Berlin. The mismatch is not a mistake.
Devika Rao · 10 September 2026 · 4 min read
A South Asian cotton behaves differently in a northern European winter. It is thinner than the climate wants and better than the climate deserves, and the studio working with both has decided not to resolve the tension.
Two sets of assumptions
A pattern block carries a climate inside it: sleeve length, layering allowance, where the weight sits. Putting one cloth tradition into another block produces a garment that is legibly from two places at once.
The alternative was worse
The obvious fix is to source a heavier cloth locally. The studio tried it for one season and describes the result as correct and uninteresting.
