Sana Mirza

Founder & Designer, Dhoop Rekha Studio | Small-batch clothing, hand-block prints & thoughtful production

I’m Sana, the founder-designer behind Dhoop Rekha Studio, a small clothing label run from a very full workroom in Shahpur Jat. I design easy-to-wear pieces using hand-block-printed cotton and available deadstock, working directly with printing partners in Bagru and a small stitching team in Delhi. My days swing between sampling, costing spreadsheets and explaining why a pocket needs another centimetre. I’m building this slowly: smaller runs, honest material notes and clothes people can keep wearing.

Run design, sourcing, sampling and customer orders for a small-batch clothing label based in Shahpur Jat. Develop hand-block prints with artisan partners in Bagru, coordinate production with a Delhi stitching team, and offer repairs on the label’s garments. Use deadstock where suitable and document fabric composition and care requirements for each release.

Supported woven womenswear collections through fabric sourcing, technical drawings, fittings and production follow-ups. Built sample trackers and worked with the pattern team to resolve fit issues before small production runs.

Apparel Design, Textile Sourcing, Hand-Block Print Development, Garment Construction, Technical Drawing, Sampling & Fit, Small-Batch Production, Production Costing, Artisan Collaboration, Creative Direction

Hindi, English, Urdu

Our latest kurta sample came back with a beautiful print and a pocket that wouldn’t comfortably hold my phone. So: another fitting, another pattern correction. Running a small label makes you very aware of what each revision costs, but skipping the useful details is expensive in a different way. We’ve moved the pocket opening and added depth. Not particularly glamorous launch content. Very satisfying to put your hand in, though.

Back from Bagru with approved swatches, two rejected colour combinations and a notebook full of corrections. Yusuf bhai spotted a repeat-spacing issue before I did, then helped me understand why my drawing wasn’t translating cleanly onto cloth. These visits aren’t just sourcing trips. They’re working sessions with people whose judgement changes the product. We agreed on the revised sample fee before starting round two. Expertise deserves a line in the budget, not just a thank-you in the caption.

This month I finally put our repair process in writing: what we can fix, what we charge for, and how long customers should expect to be without their garment. Until now, it lived across voice notes and my memory. A missing button is simple. Replacing a damaged panel when the original fabric is finished isn’t. I’d rather explain those limits clearly than promise that every piece can be repaired forever. Small business milestone: one less process dependent on me remembering everything.