Khadi and Village Industries Emporium

Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Road, the spine of Mumbai's Fort district, is one of the city's most complete heritage streetscapes — a near-continuous run of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century facades, stone arcades and first-floor balconies that conservationists have worked hard to protect.

• Set into that row is the Khadi and Village Industries Emporium, the shop most Mumbaikars still simply call Khadi Bhavan.
• It is not a boutique and makes no attempt to be one.
• It is a working government emporium — plainly lit, plainly priced, staffed by people who have sold cloth here for years — and that unfussiness is much of its charm.
• The ground floor is where khadi is sold the way it is meant to be sold: by the metre, off the bolt, cut to whatever length you ask for.
• Hand-spun, hand-woven cotton dominates, in bleached white, undyed cream, and block-printed or vegetable-dyed lengths; alongside it sit heavier cotton-wool blends for winter, slubby silk-cotton mixes, and fine muslins that take dye beautifully.
• Other counters carry ready-made kurtas, Nehru jackets, saris, dupattas and plain handloom stoles, which make light, inexpensive and genuinely local gifts.
• Prices are fixed and displayed, so there is no bargaining to do; the traditional khadi discount season is usually announced around Gandhi Jayanti in early October, and it is worth asking at the counter whether it is running.
• The "village industries" half of the name is the part visitors overlook, and it is arguably the more interesting one.
• Shelves at the back hold cold-pressed groundnut and sesame oils, raw and forest honeys, amla and herbal preparations, hand-made soaps, incense, handmade-paper stationery and simple pottery and cane goods, all sourced from small rural producers under the same scheme that supports the weavers.
• Staff are used to explaining the difference between hand-spun khadi and mill-made handloom, and will do so patiently if you ask.
• Allow about an hour, more if you are choosing fabric for stitching.
• Fort and neighbouring Kalbadevi are among the easier parts of Mumbai in which to eat vegetarian, thanks to Gujarati, Marwari and Udupi trading communities who have run kitchens here for generations — unlimited lunchtime thalis, idli-dosa counters and old-school dairy and farsan shops all sit within a ten-minute walk.
• Mumbai is also a major seafood city, though, so read the board rather than assume: look for an explicit "pure vegetarian" sign and confirm at the counter before you order.