So, you already know that we started out by fluke.
No design school. No business plan. No fashion background.
(but we do wear dresses, does that count?)
And that is just happened one day. At the kitchen table.
When two childhood girlfriends started drawing dresses we wanted to wear.
With our second collection however,
we wanted things to be different...
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| this is where we make our dresses now =) |
So, slight changes in our front.
# 1: Half of Us
Good news! One of us has gone off to have a gorgeous baby girl (congratulations, my dear friend).
The other, just. can’t. stop. designing.
We are a one-girl-show now.
But that does not stop us from creating of more beautiful dresses (dresses we want to wear).
And, this time, we’ve taken the designing further.
#2: Prints, Dyes & Fabrics
After seeing several brands using the same fabrics, we decided to design our own!
Yes, our prints and colours are designed by yours truly and hand-printed or hand-dyed in small batches.
In fact, our craft is so traditional that the colours are dyed or printed by eye (not computer) and dried organically in the sun. This means that mother nature - sunshine, humidity etc - plays its role in the uniqueness of our fabrics. We select only the best quality base fabric to print on, often playing with natural fabrics like 100% cotton, linen or rayon (which is made from plant fibre).
#3: Socially Meaningful
Designed in Melbourne, Handmade in the Villages of Bali.
We wanted to do something socially meaningful with the business.
And, wanted to structure it in a way where a community benefits.
After much research, we decided to work with D, a talented Balinese woman.
D is a mother of two with no training or background in sewing (sounds familiar?).
One day, she decided to hire a pattern-maker to start a little business. Her little business is growing and she now engages five head sew-ers from the smaller villages in Bali. With work from D, these head sew-ers get to hire people from their villages to sew, providing additional income to their farming lives. The dresses are sewn in small quantities at the villages, not mass produced in big city factories.
In my observation, the villagers sew with a lot of heart and a great deal of care.
They are treated with respect, have good working conditions and fair exchange.
The picture above was taken from the front of D’s home, where she also works. =)
