What Is Hakoba? India's Eyelet Embroidery, Explained

Ask for "hakoba" in any Indian fabric market and the shopkeeper knows exactly what you mean: white cotton worked with small embroidered eyelets, crisp and cool and unmistakably summery. Ask where the word comes from, and things get interesting.

A brand name that became a fabric

"Hakoba" began as a company — a Mumbai embroidery house whose eyelet work became so ubiquitous that, like Xerox and Thermos, the brand name swallowed the category. Today hakoba means the fabric itself: cotton embroidered with open eyelet patterns, each hole stitched around its edge so it can never fray.

How it's actually made

Real hakoba is made on Schiffli looms — room-sized machines with hundreds of needles working in concert, an invention of 19th-century Switzerland that found its second home in India. The needles embroider the pattern first; then cutting and finishing open the eyelets. It's embroidery, not printing — you can feel the thread, see the texture, hold it to the light. We wrote about the looms themselves in What Is Schiffli Embroidery?

Why it costs more — and why it's worth it

A Schiffli loom produces slowly, uses real thread by the kilometre, and needs skilled operators — there are only a handful of these machines still running in India, and some of them are on our own factory floor. That's why genuine hakoba costs more than a printed imitation: one is craft, the other is a picture of craft.

How we use it

Our Schiffli collection and the NYX lineup pair hakoba eyelet work with our in-house prints — embroidered texture underneath, printed colour on top, on 100% organic cotton. Traditional craft, cut for right now.

For the complete picture — history, machines, buying advice and care — read our definitive guide: Schiffli & Hakoba in India.

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