Paola Manfredi lived and worked in India for over 30 years and has been associated with international organizations involved with textiles, crafts development, and conservation. With a background in ethnology, she is passionate about textiles and deeply interested in the history of textile exchanges between East and West. Combining a scholarly approach and design interactions, she has worked with craftspeople and their traditional skills to promote the excellence of South Asian craftsmanship, particularly in Aari, Chikankari from Lucknow, and Nakshi Kantha from East Bengal (today Bangladesh).