Following the Partition in 1947, my grandparents had to start a new life in India. We had no physical assets to stake claim to, and so this heirloom Bagh shawl is the sole tangible link to my familial history. It has been with us for [at least] 100 years,” says Urvashi Kaur. For the designer, the shawl is an intimate story of belonging, which she tells with disarming vulnerability. It does not have a buy date. It exists outside fashion, it is simply a beautiful evidence of her ancestry.

Clothes often become personal archaeology; reminders of past feelings, identity, refuge, meaning, and on occasion, take on the function of family and friends, keeper of secrets and lovers.