Our Colours

We work with partners who have spent decades perfecting their skill, often learning from generations before them. Block printing is our speciality, but we dabble with other ways of crafting colour to make our clothes unique.

A master carver creates a design in a series of blocks made of sheesham or teak wood, dipped in dye and stamped onto the fabric by hand, inch by inch. You’ll see tiny variations in the alignment; a “human signature.” Printers require wrists of steel, patience, and a lot of chai.

When you look at a Doon Threads pattern, you’re usually looking at a “trinity” of blocks:

  • 1. Gud (The Background)

    The negative space of the pattern, often applied first. Contains the Naksh registration marks.

  • 2. Naksh (The Guidelines)

    Tiny notches carved into the block corners to align subsequent strikes and keep the pattern seamless across metres of cloth. Genius.

  • 3. Rekh (The Outline)

    The most intricate block, carved with fine lines to define every leaf, petal and geometric border.

  • 4. Datta (The Fillers)

    Once the outline is set, the Datta blocks breathe life and colour into the design. A unique block hand-carved for every individual filler shade.

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  • Screen Printing

    For patterns that are bolder or more intricate, we use traditional screen printing. Still a manual process — two sets of steady hands required. Allows us to play with different scales and layers of colour that make our contemporary designs pop.

  • A Touch of Digital

    Occasionally, for our most complex or modern designs, we use digital printing. Precise and efficient — useful for trialling patterns and colourways at small scale before committing to block or screen production.

  • Yarn-Dyed Ikat

    Master weavers dye the individual threads before they are woven. By tying and dyeing sections of the yarn, the pattern emerges as the weaver works the loom. The result: those iconic, slightly blurred hazy edges. The expertise required is extraordinary.

  • Naturally Grown (Brown Cotton)

    No dye, no vats, no chemicals. The colour comes straight out of the ground. A soft, earthy tan exactly as nature intended. Can be mixed with vat-dyed yarns for a subtle, earthy contrast.