Love eye-catching global prints and vibrant patterns? Skip the fast-fashion knockoffs and accompany us straight to the source, while supporting artisans who’ve been honing their crafts for generations.
Our India edit celebrates revered traditional techniques in handmade, fairtrade designs that add flair and individuality to any look. It also represents the good that ethical, slow-crafted fashion can do in a region where dangerous “sweatshops” and badly-run factories have been responsible for horrific human rights abuses and environmental damage.
Your purchase helps to show the world that there is an alternative, by tapping disenfranchised artisan communities in Delhi, Jaipur and Kashmir to create covetable goods with real heart and soul.
A regional specialty, block printing is a process featured on many of our favorite goods from India. Case in point, the Dot Dash Block Printed Washbag from Bohemia Design sports a bold modern pattern developed by designers in a studio in Edinburgh, then brought to life by highly skilled artisans in the desert state of Rajasthan. The pattern is carefully hand carved into a wooden block, then applied directly to the textile with precise, confident movements. It truly is an art form, one that dates back to at least the 16th century.
Creating prints by hand often results in one-of-a-kind variations that you won’t find in a mass-produced piece. Handcrafted scarves from Inouitoosh are detailed through a rare silk-screening process in which the fringes develop a worn-in effect, giving the entire textile the feel of a custom tie-dye piece.
Other intricate designs are achieved by weaving the pattern directly into a piece of fabric. This requires a different yet equally impressive skill set, as we’ve witnessed during the production of A Peace Treaty’s gorgeous scarves. Masterful pattern-makers translate a designer’s vision by coding the art onto sheets of graph paper, then transforming them into cards to hand-feed into a loom. The result: vibrantly printed cloth that makes an ethical statement.
While these eye-catching goods from India look amazing on the surface, careful consideration also goes into the raw materials, ensuring that each finished product is beautiful any way you look at it.
From premium textile fibers to the dye used to achieve saturated colors and vibrant prints, we work exclusively with Indian partners who take an environmentally responsible, sustainable approach to style.
Items from Mara Hoffman are created in India from locally grown organic cotton, which is free of chemicals and pesticides and also decreases the carbon footprint of shipping materials over long distances.
Chemical dyes frequently used in fast-fashion goods are responsible for causing some of the worst environmental devastation to water systems and other environs in India. But these slow-crafted styles take a more mindful approach, utilizing natural pigments wherever possible and developing colors in small batches for processes that are gentler on the planet as well as the artisans themselves.
ACCOMPANY US TO INDIA AND PURCHASE WITH PURPOSE
1. Innis Scarf, $175
2. Floris Casual Pant, $295
3. Eye Print Cosmetics Case, $49
4. Wolfgang Scarf, $128
5. Yohai Slip Dress, $295
6. Willa Coat, $525
