As the weather gets cooler or colder, it’s time to take out your scarves – or buy new ones! Need some inspiration on what to buy? Take a look at our guide and follow Moonoy, our Retail Manager, as she shares some tips on how to wear this must-have staple…
Textiles are an important part of Hmong culture. The Hmong people master a variety of embroidery techniques including cross-stitch, appliqué and reverse appliqué. The Hmong community uses embroidery as a way to decorate their clothes.
They’re mostly made of fabric scraps. They are plastic-free. They are colourful and playful. They’re affordable. Our toys and dolls — made in Laos — are the perfect gift for a baby or young toddler. Icing on the cake? They’re gifts that give back as they generate income for remote Akha and Tai Lue artisans!
Founder of eco-fashion house Kilomet 109, Thao Vu is a pioneering designer who has helped transform Hanoi into a creative hub. Thao describes what it means to be an ‘eco-entrepreneur’ and how her collaborations with Nung An, Tai and Khmer communities inspire and fuel her “seed to fiber” collections.
If you’ve been following us for some time, you know that we oversee all production steps — in our studio but also in the different villages we work with — to guarantee the highest quality products using environment-friendly techniques. But did you know that we also value waste minimisation? How, you ask? Upcycling!
Artisan advocate and fashion designer Kavita Parmar wants you to know that “heritage is the new luxury.” In collaboration with Marcella Echavarria, she’s curating a folk art market called XTANT in Mallorca. Presented as part market, part hands-on workshops, part art installation and celebration, Kavitat tells us how XTANT will bridge heritage and luxury.
Meet Ramzia Khorami and Maryam Omar, two vanguards bringing Afghan jewellery and Silk Road-era crafts to the contemporary global marketplace. Ramzia handcrafts Afghan jewellery using traditional techniques. Maryam manages Turquoise Mountain’s Design Center (listen to the previous episode featuring the organization). This is a rare opportunity to hear about the country’s burgeoning crafts and design sector directly from Afghan women.
According to Shoshana Stewart, CEO of Turquoise Mountain, the cornerstones of sustainable craft business are energy, beauty and pride—terms not often emphasised in development work. In this episode we go to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, taking ‘roads less travelled’ to see how Turquoise Mountain harnesses master artisan skills and launches a new generation of craft business.
In Ritoma, a small village in the breathtaking grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau, we meet Kim and Dechen Yeshi. The mother-daughter duo began an ambitious project that brings together a rare fiber called yak khullu, an uncompromising aesthetic and a commitment to uphold the ancestral nomadic traditions of the Tibetan Plateau. You’ll hear how Kim and Dechen started Norlha, a social enterprise and weaving atelier where local nomads weave textiles using yak khullu, or yak wool that is on par with cashmere.
Phou Tai communities in southern Laos are skilled cotton farmers and master Ikat weavers. Although Ikat can be done in many ways, in Laos we use the resist dye technique. Follow the thread as we look into the intricacies of this amazing weaving technique.
How do you introduce ‘start-up’, entrepreneurial thinking to a 400-year old artisan community? In Bagru, the hub of Rajasthani block printing, Jeremy Fritzhand tells us that a start-up mindset is critical to growing the industry and “putting creative power back in the hands of the artisans.” In this episode of Radio Ock Pop Tok, Jeremy discusses he and a group of forward-thinking women, along with the help of the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative (CIPRI) joined forces to start Mahila Print, a new way of protecting and licensing indigenous designs.
Meet Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, founder of the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco and champion of Quechua textiles. In this episode of Radio Ock Pop Tok, she recalls her childhood spent herding sheep and shares thoughts on what lies ahead for Quechua textiles and the indiegnous peoples of the Peruvian Andes. A creative innovator, Nilda believes the path to a sustainable future lies begins with a journey to the past.
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