No. 041
Darbar
Pictorial kalamkaar · Pure silk
Price on requestEnquire →
Hand-embroidered in Lahore
Every stitch
tells a story
Kalamkaar, sozni and tilla worked thread by thread onto pure silk and pashmina — each piece a single karigar’s work of eight to fourteen months.
The studio
A private house of
embroidered cloth
Mariam Hamza Studio works in the old Kashmiri and Persian idioms — kalamkaar, sozni, aari, tilla — on silk, pashmina and jamawar. Nothing is produced in quantity. A piece is begun when it is commissioned, and it leaves the atelier when the last knot is tied.
Lahore · Doha · Dubai · New York
Collections
Four ways to be wrapped
Bridal
ViewCeremonial shawls and dupattas for the wedding days — heavy tilla, zardozi and kalamkaar worked across the full field, with borders deep enough to carry the weight of the occasion.
Heirloom
ViewJamawar and pictorial kalamkaar wraps built for a second and third owner. Each is numbered and archived, and the drawing is never worked twice.
Everyday
ViewFine pashmina and silk with restrained sozni — worn to lunch as easily as to a mehndi. Lighter grounds, softer palettes, the same hand.
Bespoke
By requestCoats, kurtas and formals cut to measure and embroidered to a commissioned drawing. Begins with an appointment and a conversation about the occasion.
The archive
Pieces currently in the salon
The hand
Eight to fourteen
months of needle
The ground cloth is drawn by hand before a single thread is laid. From there it belongs to one karigar until it is finished — no piece passes between hands, which is why no two leave the studio alike.
- Kalamkaar
- Pictorial needlework — gardens, birds and darbar scenes drawn in thread across the full field of the shawl, never set out on a repeat.
- Sozni
- The fine Kashmiri satin stitch, worked so closely that the reverse of the cloth reads almost as clean as the face.
- Tilla & zardozi
- Flattened gold and silver wire couched into borders and pallus, reserved for the ceremonial pieces that must carry a room.
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Where we have shown
Exhibitions
By appointment worldwide
2025
Doha
October
2024
Dubai
Winter
2023
New York
Spring
2023
New Jersey
Autumn
2022
Lahore
Studio
The salon
Come and see them
in the cloth
Photographs flatten thread. Sit with the pieces, feel the weight of the pashmina, and let us bring out what is not yet on the site. Appointments are held at the Lahore studio and, in season, at our exhibitions abroad.
Request an appointment