A boutique with dye under its fingernails.

Shanti Boutique opened its doors in 2011 in Kuilapalayam, a village that folds into Auroville's edge. What began as one woman selling three hand-stitched kurtas from a bicycle basket is now a small workshop of five artisans and one dyer who has been working with indigo for thirty-two years.

We chose mul-mul cotton because it is the cloth of Tamil Nadu summers — nearly weightless, almost transparent when held to the sun, soft against skin that has been walking all day. We chose natural dyes because we don't believe good clothes should poison a river.

Everything you see here — the indigo blues, the turmeric yellows, the leaf prints — is made from things that grow. Fermented for days. Dyed in small batches. Printed one leaf at a time. That is why no two dresses are exactly alike, and why we hope you'll wear yours until it fades soft.