100 Hands: A Fusion of Dutch Personality and Respect for Indian Craftsmanship

November 11, 2024
Stelios Pentarvanis
Akshat Jain worked for some years as an Investment Banker in Amsterdam. But as he grew up in a family in India with a 164-year-old textile tradition, he decided that continuing the family history was not only an egoic urge but also his true calling professionally.
  • 100 HANDS: A FUSION OF DUTCH PERSONALITY AND RESPECT FOR INDIAN CRAFTSMANSHIP | Men's Regalia

"As a family, we had an atelier with five exceptional tailors who were the foundation of this amazing custom shirt-making journey." Our philosophy had a fundamental constant, craftsmanship and the proud signature "Made in India". Akshat and his wife Varvara dared to create their way of shirt making and decided that it would take 50 people to make a perfect handmade shirt. It took them several months and a lot of money to build a state-of-the-art factory in Amsterdam whose purpose was to produce shirts of such high quality that well-known brands worldwide would find it hard to copy.


As Akshat states in an earlier interview, for years, the fact that a shirt was handmade meant that there was a degree of forgiveness for anything less than a perfect finish. That was the challenge he wanted to address from the beginning, but also to have the same level of consistency and quality in a machine-made shirt as one that was entirely handmade. Naturally, his first clients were the tailors at Savile Row, as with their experience and masterful knowledge, they understood that they were looking at shirts of exceptional quality and technique.


Seeing the demand they had as suppliers, Akshat and Varvara decided to launch their own brand `100 Hands`. As they recall, they just made their lives complicated, but definitely more interesting. They also remember the first time they met Sato San, a great Japanese tailor who applauded their technique and the quality of their clothes. Today, 100 Hands employs 170 craftsmen with excellent knowledge, and their dedication to the company is evident in the way they manage it, which is the same way they would apply to running a small family business. For every family member of any employee, they provide medical care coverage and education for their younger children, demonstrating their commitment to social responsibility.The vision of 1OO Hands remains the same to this day: to be a standard of quality for modern industry and to champion excellence from craftsmanship, not country of origin. Its natural fibre fabrics are superior in quality even to major European brands. Their exceptional quality and bespoke orders are available from Hong Kong to New York. Each shirt takes at least 34 hours of work and many hours of finishing, stitching and buttonholing. 100 Hands produces parallel jackets called the Traveler Jacket while also collaborating with Loro Piana and Swedish menswear fashion editor Andreas Weinas for a collection of stylish cashmere shirts and jackets.
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