What is the block print technique used for the Bibi shirt?

Block print is a manual printing technique that uses hand-carved wooden blocks. The artisan dips the block in natural dye and presses it onto the fabric with precision, repeating the gesture hundreds of times for every metre of cotton. This process produces subtle variations between one impression and the next, making every Bibi women’s cotton shirt a unique piece.

How do you wash a hand-printed cotton shirt?

To preserve the vibrancy of the block print, we recommend hand-washing in cold water or a delicate machine cycle at 30°C. Avoid bleach and tumble drying. Dry in the shade and iron inside out at medium heat. Hand-printed cotton tends to grow softer wash after wash, keeping its colours intact.

How many patterns are available in the Bibi collection?

The Bibi collection comprises several patterns, all hand-printed on natural cotton: arboreal, floral, fan, botanical and geometric motifs. The palettes range from green on ivory to pink, from terracotta to the tones of the Indian countryside. Every variant retains the same soft cut and the same artisanal cotton quality.

What pairs well with the Fabindia Roma Bibi shirt?

The Bibi shirt lends itself to many pairings. Wear it with an Indian cotton pareo knotted as a skirt for a fluid look, or with a pair of artisanal cotton shorts. For evening, a soft quilted jacket adds structure without adding weight.

What makes a Fabindia women’s cotton shirt unique compared to industrial shirts?

The difference lies in the production process. While an industrial shirt is machine-printed in seconds, every Fabindia women’s cotton shirt requires hours of manual work. Indian artisans use natural-based dyes and wooden blocks handed down through generations. The result is a fabric with a chromatic depth and a tactile quality that mass production cannot replicate.

Women’s Printed Cotton Shirt

Bibi Shirt

A cut that never goes out of fashion because it never followed one: the Bibi shirt is lightweight co...

A cut that never goes out of fashion because it never followed one: the Bibi shirt is lightweight cotton, open collar, a soft line that follows the body without constraining it. Different block print ...

The collection features several variants, each with a different pattern hand-printed on natural cotton. The Bibi Arbre women’s cotton shirt brings an arboreal motif in green on an ivory ground, while the Bibi Fiordaliso printed cotton shirt features small pink flowers. The Bibi Ventaglio in pink printed cotton and the Bibi Bosforo in terracotta cotton share the fan motif in distinct colour palettes. Completing the series are the Bibi Agra cotton shirt with Mughal flowers, the Bibi Samarcand with its floral motif, the Bibi Budleia with its botanical motif and the Bibi Palm with small palms.

Every women’s cotton shirt in the Bibi line has a soft cut that falls naturally over the body, with long sleeves and a front button placket. The hand-printed cotton using the block print technique retains those slight irregularities that testify to the artisanal craftsmanship: every piece is one of a kind.

The Bibi shirt pairs easily with a printed cotton skirt for a coordinated look, or with one of the wool and cashmere shawls when the evening grows cool. To complete the ensemble, a Roma cotton shopper carries the artisanal spirit of the Bibi women’s cotton shirt.

The Bibi hand-printed cotton shirt is born from the dialogue between Indian artisans and Fabindia’s Roman sensibility. Every pattern is carved into wooden blocks and pressed by hand onto the fabric: a slow process that gives the cotton a chromatic depth impossible to achieve with industrial printing.