The Rajboori Story - Design Concept - Journey to India II

MAR - APR 2008

In March, 2008, Stephen and I journeyed to India, mainly the Eastern part, to develop the design concept for our very first collection that would be luxurious, artisanal, eco-friendly, and contemporary. A wide variety of silk was available to us but we decided to use Peace Silk as our fabric due to it's amazing texture that resembles cotton mixed with wool with the sheen of silk. It's a very durable silk that offers everyday luxury. Peace Silk is also the only eco-friendly silk as the silkworm remains unharmed during the silk extraction process. It is allowed to live a full life and become a moth from.

Together, we travelled to the heart of the silk industry and into the homes of the weavers who create these amazing fabrics. Their skills are inherited from their forefathers and this weaver community has been practicing this trade for centuries. It was truly amazing to find that each home contained a loom. The expert weaver's hands flew through the warps and the wefts of the weaves, creating magic in the fabric right before our eyes!

We created quite a stir in this otherwise quiet village. A tall American, a somewhat westernized young Indian woman, and our Indian collaborators caught the curious attention of the young and old in the village. Wherever we went, we had a following of about 8-10 people with us!

The time of our visit conveniently coincided with the Festival of Colors - Holi, which is a celebration of the arrival of Spring. The colors of Holi provided us with some of the inspiration for our bold and vibrant collection. Holi is a colorful and vibrant festival where the colors of nature are replicated in the form of powdered color and applied on each other.

After spending a good amount of time in the village and the vibrant city of Calcutta, we returned to NY/Vancouver to develop the design concept for our first eco-silk home textile collection.

TO BE CONTINUED.....NEXT POST MAR 16