Labelyūga

Yūga is an artisan-driven label founded by Parul Gupta, working in Indian handwoven textiles with the weaving communities of Kerala. It grew from a question that stayed with her long before the brand had a name: what does it really mean to create responsibly, and who do we create with?

Parul's work with textiles began at the Indian Institute of Art and Design, Delhi, and deepened at 11.11 / eleven eleven. In November 2021 conversations with the researcher Gadha Gopal opened new paths; in April 2022 she travelled to Kerala for the first time to work directly with artisans. Yūga launched in September 2022, though its thinking had been forming for a while by then.

Creation begins at the loom. The brand works with women weavers and handloom societies in Kerala in dialogue rather than direction — including techniques such as rice starch to strengthen yarn and coconut oil at warp setting. Production happens in Delhi; research and development stay tied to Kerala.

Yūga does not work to trends or seasons, but to place, process and time. Five collections so far — H-47, Kirukeshiki, Vidavu, Sangham and Thaalam — each extending the last rather than replacing it. The practice runs past clothing into textile artwork and patchwork, where waste fabric and overlooked fragments find another life.

Yūga has shown at Blur The Border at Soho House Mumbai, and been featured in The Hindu and in Practising Solidarity by ArtEZ, Netherlands.

In the brand's own words: community "is not a concept here; it is a working method."

Craft: the brand works directly with weaving clusters and independent artisans in Kerala, describing fair wages, transparent communication and flexible working arrangements, with regular visits to the clusters. Indigenous processes are kept — rice starch to strengthen yarn, coconut oil at warp setting — which the brand describes as generations of accumulated knowledge.

Materials: natural fibres, hand processes and local materials. Waste fabric and offcuts are worked into textile artworks and patchwork.

Packaging: muslin cotton, with the brand name hand-embroidered. No single-use plastic, no non-recyclable multi-material plastic, and material information shown on the packaging.

People: a written worker policy, minimum wage with timely payment, safe conditions, reasonable hours, maternity leave, public holidays and non-discriminatory practice. A significant part of the work engages women artisans and small-scale weavers.