The co-founder of Tilfi, Aditi Chand, reflects on scaling Banarasi mastery without compromise, redefining heritage for a global audience, and building an India-born luxury house rooted firmly in Varanasi’s artisanal ecosystem.

A snow leopard is an elusive sight, even in its habitat, an animal camouflaged in the Himalayan terrains of snow and stone. But to see it leaping on the length of a Banarasi sari is a rarer wonder—a figure unknown to the textile tradition’s vocabulary. It is one of the stories that Tilfi, the clothing label founded in 2016 by Aditi Chand, Udit Khanna and Ujjwal Khanna, is now bringing to the handloom stories of the Banarasi Shikargah.

An immersive celebration of Banaras’s living craft traditions through textile, metal, performance and gastronomy

Tilfi’s latest showcase transforms Banarasi artistry from silk to sculpted metal, redefining craft for a modern world.