Assam
Reaching out to the borders of Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh, Assam is a state of countless cultures, rites, languages, foods, and of course, craft. Assam is also the state with the highest number of handloom households in all of India. Weaving as well as spinning and natural dyeing belongs to the skills of many people, mostly women.
However, most of the wooden looms are for domestic use to make cloth for the family, such as the Assamese towel, called Gamosa. Yet, this practice is becoming less and less lucrative as very cheap clothing can be bought from the market.
We want to embrace the idea of making clothes from home,
in the backyard of the weaver’s house.
Our team in Assam are home-based female weavers who practice the craft of their culture - spinning, weaving and dyeing - and are eager to experiment with it.
The raw material we are using is eri silk, also called peace silk. It is one of the rare silks which are non-violent and do not kill the moth. Also, eri silk is characteristic to Assam.
It’s a very unique silk and definitely not the usual silk one would expect. With a structure like cotton or linen it is warm, durable, strong and becomes softer with use and time.