Printed by flowers.
Made by hand in Mumbai.
Adam Leaves makes contemporary clothing in hemp, linen, silk and cotton, printed with real flowers and leaves, many saved from temple offerings.
01 · The offering
Before there was fabric, there was the offering.
Every day across India, flowers mark devotion and celebration: temples, weddings, festivals. Once the moment passes, they are thrown away, and rivers absorb what should have had a second life.
We asked a different question: what if that waste didn't have to be waste? The answer became Nirmalya Print™, our way of pressing real flowers and foraged leaves directly into cloth, with no synthetic dye, no printing plate and no chemical runoff.
02 · Since 1993
Three decades of making garments, one new direction.
In November 1993, Manoj Dave started his own garment business in Mumbai. Together with his brother Jignesh, he built bridal and ethnic wear for clothing shops in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and later opened our showroom, Pushkar Bridal, in Borivali.
Thirty years of pattern, cut and finish taught us what conventional fashion costs the planet. Adam Leaves is where that experience found a new direction.
Our original store, 2013.
“The fashion world does not need another synthetic fibre or chemical dye to achieve true beauty. Nature has already woven and painted the perfect canvas.”The Dave Brothers, founders
03 · Nirmalya Print™
How a print is made
- Lay. Petals and leaves are washed, sorted and laid by hand on natural cloth.
- Roll & bind. The cloth is rolled tightly and tied, so every petal presses into the fibre.
- Steam. The bundle is steamed for hours, and the plants release their colour.
- Reveal. Unrolled, every metre carries a print that can never be repeated.
04 · Our fabrics
Only natural fibres
05 · The numbers
We'd rather show the maths
A 400-gram hemp or linen garment with Nirmalya Print™, compared with the same garment in chemically dyed polyester:
Polyester takes about 125 MJ/kg to produce, hemp and linen 40–50 MJ/kg. Roughly 5–6 heavy washing-machine cycles saved per garment.
Synthetic dyeing uses 100–150 litres per kilo of fabric and discharges effluent. Nirmalya Print™ uses none of it.
Natural fibres don't shed plastic fragments in the wash, unlike polyester.
Estimates based on data from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the European Environment Agency and Textile Exchange.
One honest note: our sewing thread is recycled polyester (Coats EcoVerde). Before composting a garment at the very end of its life, snip out the seams and remove the buttons. We're testing what happens ourselves; follow the burial series on Instagram.
06 · The hands
Hands, not just machines
Behind every piece are pattern-makers, tailors and botanical printers, including women artisans from Mumbai's Malwani area and printing artisans in Raipur and Jharkhand, working close to the forests where the leaves are gathered. Production is led by Jignesh Dave, from pattern to the last stitch. Fair wages and safe conditions are not a checkbox; they are the only way this craft survives.
07 · Nothing hidden
Come and see us
Many fashion websites don't even share an address. We do. Our workshop is at B/5-17, 1st Floor, MHB Colony, Rajendra Nagar, Dattapada Road, Near Police Chowki, Borivali East, Mumbai 400066. Visit to see the fabrics and meet the people who make your clothes, Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 7 pm.
08 · Certificates
Certified, and honest about it
We buy fabrics and trims from suppliers who hold certificates such as OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 and, where available, GOTS. We will publish each one with its number and validity date so you can check it yourself. A certificate covers the material as our supplier made it; our own hand eco-printing and tailoring are not certified by these schemes.
For retailers and designers
Bring botanical prints to your store
We work with stores in a shop-in-shop format and sell Nirmalya Cloth by the metre to designers. Adam Leaves is run by Jakhoda Fashtech, a registered partnership firm in Mumbai (GSTIN 27AAUFJ4295L1ZF), with an Import Export Code for international orders.
Be kind to nature. Wear consciously.
Every garment is made to order or made to measure, every offering finds a second life, and every claim we make is one we can back up.
Shop Eco-Printed Signatures