Mr. Rodricks’s academic approach to both projects has been influenced by his training. He studied fashion in Los Angeles and Paris before working as a designer in Mumbai, where he also taught a class on the history of world costumes at SNDT Women’s University. He took a break in 2000, at the age of 40, for two internships: one, on conserving pre-21st century garments, at Lisbon’s National Museum of Costume and another, on modern garments, at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, under its director, Valerie Steele.

On Exhibits

Mr. Rodricks and Mr. Marrel have amassed an 800-piece collection, ranging from a seventh-century Apsara, or female spirit of the clouds and waters, found in a Colvale field where a Buddhist monastery once stood, to one of Mr. Rodricks’s own successes: the Goan Kunbi sari, using a weave that had died out under Portuguese rule and he repopularized in 2011.

The pieces are stored at a house they own in the Goan capital of Panaji, while the museum’s development continues with the assistance of Arvind D’Souza Architects, a local firm, and Eka Archiving Services of New Delhi. (Its board of trustees includes well-known names like the celebrated author Amitav Ghosh, who lives part-time in Goa.)

When Moda Goa opens this winter, it is to include a library and 16 galleries of exhibits tracing Goa’s sartorial history from pre-Portuguese times to its current role as India’s happy-go-lucky beach escape. Among the galleries will be one dedicated to the pano bhaju, and one, secured by a bank vault door, to display gold jewelry. Even the swimming pool has been covered and turned into a display area for a range of saris.