The ethnic tribal Naga influence is obvious, but Zeliang has astutely woven a language of luxury into her products. Besides, being handwoven using natural yarn lends instant cachet in the international market. A greenhorn when she started out, her work was colourful and folksy but she learned to lend a contemporary context to traditional textiles. “Otherwise people have no use for it. For our market abroad, we stick to a neutral palette, minimalistic design, and exclusive collections,” she says. One of her popular recent collections had silk cushion covers inspired by Naga tattoos.

Zeliang works with more than 200 weavers in and around Dimapur, where she has organised them into medium, small, and mini-clusters. Flexible in form, the loin loom can be folded and carried, it also allows women to work from anywhere—at home, in the paddy fields or during a break from chopping wood. After 20 years in business, Zeliang’s team is able to produce up to 500 cushion covers and 90 throws in two months. “But there are so many different hands involved, it is hard to get standardisation. I have to be careful because in Japan even the tiniest discrepancy is rejected.”