Aankhā Jhyāl

In the old courtyards of Patan, the aankhā jhyal — the carved wooden lattice window — was never only an opening. It watched the street, softened the sun into a lace of shadow, and gave the household its privacy without ever closing it off. This collection borrows that logic of the threshold.

Bodices are built as lattices in their own right: panels of cotton-silk are hand-cut and back-set with finer cloth, so the body is suggested rather than shown. The geometry is taken directly from windows still standing a few lanes from the atelier, then loosened until it falls and breathes with movement.

It opens the monograph because it is the most literal translation of place into garment — a building made wearable, a city's memory worn close.