Diamond Applique Work Shop

Pipli, a small Odisha town on the Bhubaneswar–Puri highway, was reportedly established by the kings of Puri to house the tailors who made ceremonial textiles for the Jagannath Temple; written evidence of appliqué work there dates back to AD 1054. Those hereditary tailors, known as Darjis, hand-cut fabric motifs of flowers, birds and mythical figures and stitch them onto a base cloth using bakhia, buttonhole and reverse-appliqué techniques, historically producing the chandua canopies and chhati — ceremonial umbrellas — that dress Lord Jagannath's chariots during the annual Ratha Yatra. Pipli appliqué, or chandua work, received Geographical Indication recognition in 2008.

Diamond Applique Work Shop, run from two showrooms in the Pipli market by proprietor J Khan, has been in the trade for roughly a quarter-century, drawing on a workforce of close to a thousand artisans. Alongside lamp shades, cushion covers and shamiyana canopies, garden umbrellas and children's umbrellas are among its core product lines — the same hand-appliqué technique once reserved for the deities' ceremonial chhati, now stitched onto mounted umbrella canopies for everyday and garden use.

For a craft under real pressure from machine lace and sewing-machine shortcuts, a workshop still fielding hand-stitched appliqué umbrellas at this scale, out of the original GI-tagged village, is a rare working link to Pipli's original ceremonial trade.