A garment is never made by one person. Every Adam Leaves blazer, kurta or dress passes through many skilled hands before it reaches you, and most of those skills are slowly disappearing from Indian fashion. This is a short introduction to the people who make our clothes, and why we choose to work this way.
Women embroiderers from Malwani, Mumbai
Our hand embroidery is done by a dedicated group of women artisans from Mumbai's Malwani area. They work on traditional frames, stitch by stitch, adding detail to selected pieces such as our embroidered linen jackets. Hand embroidery takes time, and no two pieces come out exactly alike. For the women who do it, it is skilled, regular work close to home.
Botanical printers in Raipur and Jharkhand
Our eco-printing, which we call Nirmalya Print, depends on printers who understand leaves and flowers as well as cloth. Some of our printing is done in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, close to the forests where many of the leaves are gathered, and some in Jharkhand. Flowers and leaves are laid by hand on natural fabric, rolled tightly into a bundle and steamed, so the plants print their own colour and shape into the fibre. It is a slow process, and it cannot be rushed or copied by a machine.
Pattern-makers and tailors in our Mumbai workshop
Every garment is cut and stitched in our own workshop in Borivali East, Mumbai. Our family has been making garments since 1993, first for clothing shops in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and today for Adam Leaves. Production is led by Jignesh Dave, who has worked alongside Manoj Dave for three decades, from pattern-making to the last stitch.
Because the workshop is our own, we can make every design in standard sizes XS–XXL or to your own measurements, usually within 5–10 working days. Making to order also means we don't produce rails of stock that may never be sold.
Why we work this way
- Skills that would otherwise disappear. Hand embroidery and botanical printing are increasingly rare. Steady orders keep them alive.
- Close enough to fix things. We work with our artisans directly, not through layers of agents, so a problem can be solved in an afternoon rather than outsourced across a continent.
- Fair work. Fair wages and safe conditions are not a compliance checkbox for us; they are the only way this kind of craft survives.
- Nothing hidden. We publish our workshop address, and you are welcome to visit: B/5-17, 1st Floor, MHB Colony, Rajendra Nagar, Dattapada Road, Near Police Chowki, Borivali East, Mumbai 400066 (Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 7 pm).
See their work
Explore our Eco-Printed Signatures, printed by hand with real flowers and leaves, or read the full Adam Leaves story.
