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The Ultimate Exotic Shopping Spree You Didn't Know Was Possible

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Of all the shopping meccas in the world, none dazzles more than India. The silks! The carpets! The rubies and silver and gold!

But of all the countries in the world, few are more dizzying than India. It’s all too easy to veer off on the wrong track. Which is why many visitors end up at what travel designer Meghan Black at Absolute Travel calls mass-market emporiums. “On one level they’re okay; they’re set up for tourists, so you can see their process,” she says. “But my issue with those places is that you’re going through a circuit and you can feel that there are other tourists following you, and there’s a hard sell at the end.”

And so Black, who spent six months living in the Himalayas several years ago and studied in Delhi before earning a master's in fashion merchandising—making her extremely qualified to delve into Indian shopping—set out to change that. She mined her extensive contacts across India, and then spent two weeks in that country, vetting their suggestions for the ultimate insider shopping in Delhi, Jaipur, Cochin and beyond. The artisans who pleased her discerning eye are the focal point of Absolute Travel’s new Treasure Hunting Through India itinerary.

“The studios I researched and went to are not set up for tourists,” she explains. “You don’t get that sense of ‘here’s our method,’ but you get to see actual working studios. You’re the only traveler there, and artists will give you their time.”

As an example, she sites Brigette Singh’s haveli workshop in Jaipur, where she creates masterful block-printed textiles. “You need someone to make an introduction. And then you have to wait outside, until finally someone shows you upstairs and they start pulling out piece after piece of block-printed work. And you’re the only person there, surrounded by meters and meters of silk. You’re choosing something that you know is going to be an heirloom piece in your life. And they’re just so casual about it—there’s a dog downstairs—but you come away with some iconic designer work.”

Even for shopping experiences that are more available to the general public, Absolute's trips emphasize personal recommendations and introductions to designers like those behind Anokhi (maker of cult-favorite and highly giftable pouches) and Michcat Co, which specializes in one-of-a-kind color-rich carpets fashioned from worn silk saris. The experience is more in line with that of a professional designer or luxury boutique buyer than a typical tourist.

Especially dear to Black is the Nest weaving facility in Varanasi, one of her employer's Absolute Awareness partners that are reviving artisan craft around the world in a sustainable and lucrative way—in this case a 500-year-old silk weaving tradition that had been dying out. Nest is currently building a state-of-the-art loom facility, but the community already going strong—the collective’s first collection did extremely well at Paris’s spring 2015 fashion week. “It’s an extremely high-quality product that you don’t see anywhere else,” says Black.

The high design and stellar shopping extend to the hotels on the itinerary, like Rajasthan’s whimsical new Suján Rajmahal Palace—“like a set from a Wes Anderson movie”—where they won’t quite sell you their exclusive, custom-designed Mughal-inspired wallpapers and textiles but they will happily direct you to the shop where they got theirs. And guests stay in Mumbai’s first luxury boutique hotel, Abode, whose proprietors scoured India for treasures and teamed with the collective WomenWeave and local designers to create custom textiles and furnishings. There, you can purchase hotel decor and they’ll have it packed and shipped to your home.

But even better is having something made for you. “Some of India’s ready-made clothing places are great, but if you have two or three days, get authentic jodhpurs [which must be tailored to your unique bone structure] made in Jodhpur, or a sari or salwar kameez in Delhi,” suggests Black. “In the West, made-to-measure is huge luxury thing. But in India it’s just what everyone has always done.

“The tailors work out of tiny little stands, but their work is exquisite and perfect. And you’ve paid less than $20 for it.” The experience, however, is priceless.