NEW DELHI, INDIA: Shanti Banaras has announced the opening of its new store at Ambawatta One, Mehrauli, a space that redefines how Banarasi textiles are presented and experienced.
Located in close proximity to the Qutub Minar, the store sits within a part of Delhi shaped by long-standing cultural memory. For a brand rooted in Banaras, the choice of location is instinctive - not for spectacle, but for alignment.
The store is structured as a sequence rather than a single visual field. Built almost like a maze, each section reveals itself gradually, allowing the textile to be encountered in parts, with focus and pause, rather than as a continuous display.
At its core, the space is a curated presentation of the brand’s most defined pieces - Banarasi metallic lehengas, real zari weaves, and hand-embroidered saris developed with high levels of detail and finish. These are placed with intent, shifting away from the traditional gadda-based format of displaying Banarasi, and instead isolating each garment so its structure, weight and intricacy can be read more clearly.
Every element within the store carries a reference to the process. The chandeliers are constructed from loom punch cards, translated into metal taking a coded weaving system and reworking it into a physical object. Small Shanti insignias appear within details across the space, embedded rather than overt.
The display language follows the same thinking. Mannequins are abstracted, moving away from conventional forms. Furniture is clean, linear and controlled, built to support the textile, not compete with it.
Speaking about the store, Khushi Shah, Creative Director and Co-founder, says, “The intention was not to reinterpret Banarasi, but to re-edit how it is seen. By changing the format of display, you begin to notice the discipline of the textile in a very different way.”
The launch evening builds directly on this idea. Titled ‘The Banaras Circus’, the experience draws from the underlying chaos of the city where multiple things are happening at once, yet something precise continues to emerge.
Through performance, sound and movement, the store is activated in a way that mirrors this condition. The maze-like structure of the space becomes part of the experience, guiding how people move, encounter and engage. For the evening, the store shifts from a place of display to a live environment - where the textile remains central but is experienced within a larger, more dynamic setting.
With its new address at Ambawatta One, Shanti Banaras presents not just a new store but a clear point of view on how Banarasi can be positioned, seen, and engaged with today.
