How Zari Embroidery Has Preserved Balochi Heritage Since 1960
We get asked this a lot: what does "since 1960" actually mean, beyond a number on an About page? Here's the honest, specific answer.
Where We Started
What began as a single family workshop in Sadar Bazaar, Karachi has grown into a home for Balochi craft that now ships worldwide. We didn't start as a big brand — we started as one workshop, sourcing and selling hand-embroidered pieces from artisans working in the Balochi tradition.
What Hasn't Changed Since 1960
The core promise has stayed the same through every decade: 100% hand embroidery, zero machine work, at any stage of production. Every piece we sell — a Shoolok kurta, a Quetta doch suit, a Mausam festive set, a Makki Tanka piece — is stitched by hand, by an artisan, the same way it would have been made in 1960. We haven't swapped hand-stitching for machine embroidery to cut costs or speed things up, because that would mean selling something different from what built the workshop in the first place.
What Has Changed
What has changed is reach, not process. A workshop that once sold locally out of Sadar Bazaar now ships handmade Balochi dresses to customers across Pakistan and internationally — including the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UK, and USA. The artisans still work by hand; we've just built the means to get their work to more people.
Why We're Careful About What We Claim Here
We'd rather tell you exactly what we know than pad this story with vague claims we can't back up. We're not going to invent a founder's name, a specific year-by-year timeline, or a customer count we can't stand behind just to make this page sound more impressive. What we can say plainly and stand behind is this: a family workshop in Sadar Bazaar, Karachi, hand-embroidering Balochi dresses since 1960, still doing it the same way today. If you want more detail than that — founder background, photos, named artisans — reach out to us directly through our contact page and we're happy to share what we can.
How This Connects to the Styles We Sell Today
Every style in our current collection — Shoolok, Quetta embroidery, Mausam embroidery, Makki Tanka — comes out of the same broader Balochi hand-embroidery tradition this workshop has sourced from since 1960. If you want the full picture of where these styles come from and how they differ, see our complete Balochi embroidery guide and the history of Balochi embroidery more broadly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ZariEmbroidery a factory or a family workshop?
We started as a single family workshop in Sadar Bazaar, Karachi, and that heritage is still core to how we source and sell handmade Balochi embroidery today.
Does "since 1960" mean the same people have been running it the whole time?
We're a workshop with roots going back to 1960 in Sadar Bazaar, Karachi — for specific ownership or founder history beyond that, contact us directly and we'll share what we can verify.
Has the embroidery process changed since 1960?
No — every piece is still 100% hand-embroidered, with zero machine work at any stage, the same standard the workshop has held since it started.
Explore the handmade collections that carry this history forward today.
Written by ZariEmbroidery
Handmade Balochi embroidery artisans since 1960, working out of Sadar Bazaar, Karachi. Every guide we publish comes from real workshop experience — not a textbook.
