Every April, the same question lands in my inbox, my DMs, and across my shop counter: "What should I actually wear in this heat?" The question sounds simple. The answer is not. Because "cotton" is not one fabric, it is dozens of fabrics, woven in dozens of ways, across dozens of regions, each behaving differently against your skin at 44 degrees.

I have spent over a decade sourcing handwoven and hand-printed textiles from more than 500 craft clusters across India. I have touched thousands of fabrics in warehouse heat, watched how they move on a body walking through a Gwalior afternoon, and listened to weavers explain why their cloth breathes the way it does. What follows is everything I know about choosing the right summer fabric, not as marketing, but as someone who genuinely cares about this.