long shawl

Lines of cherry hues adorn this sweet and radiant design, perfect for making you shine at any event. Guatemala's Elena Ixtamer crafts the shawl using cotton on a traditional loom, arranging each color on a yellow base hue. As the final touch, Elena adds fringes for a stylish vibe.

History tells of Ahilya Bai Holkar, the Philosopher Queen renowned for her wisdom and bravery who commanded armies into battle. She once commissioned weavers to design long sarees without floral motifs, as she did not care for them. Weavers drew inspiration from the detailing on the Maheshwar Fort, and wove intricately patterned fabrics that have come to be known as Maheshwari weaves. Indian artisan Rajveer preserves this legendary tradition with this bright yellow shawl, woven on a hand loom with a cotton and silk blend featuring discreet shades of green and rose.

Shimmering strands of yellow rayon are skillfully worked across green and black threads in this superlative kente cloth scarf. An extremely intricate double weave, its pattern is created primarily on the weft, or horizontal threads of the loom. Great care must be taken so that the blocks of color have same size and match one another when the woven strips are joined. A special stick is used to measure the cloth on the loom so Gobah Tengey-Seddoh names this design Atikpui (measure).

Each strip requires considerable effort, and the looms are worked with both hands and feet. Strips are generally three to four inches wide and seven to ten feet long, and the length of time it takes to complete one strip varies by the complexity of the chosen pattern. The simplest use mostly vertical, or warp patterns, and an experienced weaver can make several of those in one day. But patterns with nearly all weft patterns, where the warp design is hardly visible, can take up to four days to complete an individual strip. Each color has its own meanings in Asante culture. Green is fertility and new harvest, gold is royalty, black is strength, aging, and spirituality, while white is purity. The patterns themselves are carefully chosen symbols, which a master weaver develops and names, often to honor people, historical events, or proverbs.

Dry clean only.