98 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Embroidered textiles and colorful woven fabrics flow from floor to ceiling at SHALINI B. Tucked within the rustic barn at the back of Menlo Park’s Allied Arts Guild, the shop feels like a treasure cave waiting to be explored. Vibrant quilts, Moroccan pillow covers, hand-stamped, block print cottons—everywhere and all around, a kaleidoscope of captivating stacks and displays. Owner Shalini Bitzer brings a global sensibility to her craft, designing and curating fabrics from all over the world. “Global is how I feel, think and is my life in general,” reveals Shalini. Her story is a legacy of a hard-working family of entrepreneurs spanning decades and continents whose labor of love now extends to the Peninsula. As a third-generation textile designer and business owner, Shalini runs the family company India Silk with the same passion that her grandfather Sunderlal did for 60 years in Bangalore, India. “My grandfather would go to the airport in India with his bags of silk and check what flights were departing to other countries that day and buy a ticket,” she recounts. {home & design} words by JENNIFER JORY • photography by ANNIE BARNETT TEXTILES weaving a legacy
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