Navratri Chaniya Cholis
A premium Navratri collection of designer chaniya cholis — built to dance nine nights.
Dancing outside India? Chaniya cholis are measured on a video call and couriered — how ordering from abroad works.
Navratri · 11–19 October 2026
Begins in 6 days.
Nothing here is made in advance — every chaniya choli is cut when it is ordered. Tell us your date and we will say honestly what is possible in the time.
Navratri falls on 11–19 October 2026 this year — nine nights of garba, and nine nights that a chaniya choli has to survive. Ours are cut to one body and embroidered by hand in our Vadodara studio, which is a different proposition from a rack in a shop or a rental returned on the tenth morning.
A chaniya choli is three pieces that have to agree with each other: the chaniya, the flared skirt whose weight decides how it moves; the choli, which is where fit is either right or obvious; and the dupatta. Get the skirt wrong and it does not fly. Get the choli wrong and she spends the evening adjusting it instead of dancing.
Built to dance, not to photograph
The difference between a chaniya choli that works and one that only looks good in a photograph is decided at the waist and the hem. Too little flare and the skirt refuses to open when she spins; too much weight low down and it swings against her rather than with her. Both are fitting problems, and both are why a garment cut for one body behaves differently from one cut for a size chart.
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Nine nights is also a test of construction rather than decoration. Seams that survive one evening of photographs do not necessarily survive three hours of raas, the stick dance, three nights running, in October heat in Gujarat.
The hand work
Four of the crafts in this studio belong to Navratri more than to any other season: bandhani, mirror and thread work, gota patti and aari.
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Bandhani — the tie-and-dye of Kutch and Saurashtra, tied dot by dot before it is dyed. Mirror and thread work, the shisha that catches the light of a garba ground and is the reason these garments read from across a field. Gota patti, ribbon appliqué from Rajasthan, worked in bands along a hem. And aari, the hooked needle that lays a chain stitch fine enough to draw with.
All of it is done by hand, in our own studio, by karigars we work with rather than send work out to. Machine embroidery is faster and cheaper. On a garment worn nine nights and then kept, the difference shows in the third year, not the first.
Made to measure, bought, or rented
Renting suits a visitor who needs one evening and nothing afterwards. A ready-made piece from a shop suits someone whose measurements happen to match the chart it was cut to. Made to measure suits everyone else — which, in our experience of fitting rooms, is most people, and particularly anyone who has ever had to choose between a choli that fits the shoulders and one that fits everywhere else.
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It is not only fit. A piece cut for you can be built around what you actually want: the weight you are willing to carry for three hours, the colour your mother wore, a bandhani dupatta kept from a family sari and rebuilt into something you will wear.
When to start
Navratri is 11–19 October 2026. Hand embroidery sets the pace of everything here and it cannot be hurried without it showing, so the honest answer to "is there still time" depends on what you want made and when you ask.
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Tell us your date and what you have in mind, and we will tell you plainly whether it can be done properly. If it cannot, we would rather say so than deliver something rushed with our name inside it.
For the family
Navratri is rarely one person dressing. We make for the whole family — kediyu and kurtas for men, and pieces for children, cut and embroidered in the same studio as everything else.
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If you are ordering for several people, come to us early. Three garments on one deadline is a different conversation from one.
From outside Vadodara, or outside India
A good share of this studio’s work now travels. Brides and families in Ahmedabad, Surat, Anand and further across Gujarat come in for a fitting or send measurements; families in the US, UK, Canada and Australia are fitted on a video call of about twenty minutes and the finished piece is couriered.
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If you are dancing garba outside India, the ordering and shipping is set out in detail on our page for exactly that.
Questions we are asked
What is the difference between a chaniya choli and a lehenga?
They share a shape — flared skirt, fitted blouse, dupatta — but they are built for different jobs. A chaniya choli is made to move: lighter, fuller through the skirt, and constructed to take three hours of garba a night. A bridal lehenga is made to be still and to be photographed, and carries far more weight in embroidery.
Is a made-to-measure chaniya choli worth it over renting?
For one evening in a city you are visiting, rent. For nine nights, for a piece you will wear again, or if a ready-made choli has never quite fitted you, there is no real comparison — fit is most of what makes a chaniya choli comfortable enough to dance in.
How long does one take to make?
It depends entirely on the hand work. A piece carrying heavy mirror and bandhani work is a different job from a simpler one, and the embroidery sets the pace. Tell us your date and we will tell you honestly what is possible before you commit to anything.
Can you rebuild my mother’s chaniya choli or bandhani dupatta?
Yes, and it is some of the studio’s favourite work — keeping the original hand work at the heart of a garment rebuilt to your body. Speak to us before you alter or post anything, so we can tell you what is possible.
Do you make for men and children too?
Yes — kediyu and kurtas for men, and pieces for children, made in the same studio. If several people in one family are being dressed for the same nine nights, start early.
I am not in Vadodara. Can you still make for me?
Yes. Families across Gujarat travel in for a fitting or send measurements, and for anyone outside India we take measurements together on a video call of about twenty minutes and courier the finished piece.
