Unwrapped

 

A few weeks ago when I was in Cape Town, I saw these gorgeous pillows by Mandi Garbman, the talent behind Unwrapped, and knew I wanted to share them with you. I love the fun whimsical feel they have!

{Photos: unwrapped}

Adire Collection

A Peace Treaty has been on my radar forever because I'm obsessed with their products. Their Adire collection is an ode to the patterns found in these tradition designs by Yoruba women. In addition to a healthy dose of indigo, these cotton/silk scarves also are available in soft pinks, greys, and rust.

Also check out their Les Coeurs Collection of cashmere scarves that are beyond jaw-dropping!

{Photos: A Peace Treaty}

Skinny Tea Towel

Over the years, I've been a big fan of Heather Moore's designs over at Skinny Laminx so you can only image my surprise to find her stall, with her working her wares, while I was at the Neighborhood Market at Old Biscuit Mill (so much more on that later)! Not only was it wonderful to finally see all these wonderful designs in person, but it was great to meet the person behind so much creativity!

Needless to say, this fun, quirky tea towel is now adding so flavor to my little kitchen!

{Photos: Skinny Laminx}

A Textile Dilemma

So I know your first question must be why I'm showing you a random picture of a bookcase, but this random picture might just be the solution to a longstanding decor dilemma of mine!

You see, I harbor a very mild obsession with textiles! I have dozens of wax print fabrics from West African, kangas from East Africa, woven pieces from Latin America, and a growing collection of vintage silk handkerchiefs. For the most part, they are all neatly piled away in my closet and only get pulled out when I need an extra dose of color. Whenever this happens, I go into "oh such pretty fabrics - how can I display them better in my home" mode. Three years in and still no solution.....that is until I saw this image and realized the perfection that could become of making a little pile of them on a bookcase shelf (that my bookcase is already filled is just a minor detail)!!

That I'm still abroad for another three weeks doesn't distract from the fact that I know this is going to be brilliant once I pull it together. I even recently got an idea of what to do with one of my very fragile handkerchiefs!!!

Can't wait to share once I pull these together!


{Photo: Desire to Inspire}

New Vlisco Line

It's been a little while since I last visited the Vlisco site so you know I was in for a major visual/textural treat. How FUN are these prints?!?!

{Photos: Vlisco}

Textile Inspiration

I'm convinced that every coastal culture has it's own version of the striped light cloth that can easily be towel, pillow, beach wrap or anything else you want it to be. I love this Tunisian version of said fabric. While I generally prefer bright colors, this gray one has me drawn into it's simplicity.

{Photos: Zamma-Fouta}

{Loving This!}...Textiles

It's pretty ridiculous how much I love colorful textiles so as you can imagine, most places in Africa just add fuel to my fire when it comes to this and clearly Benin does not disappoint. I love the complete fearlessness when it comes to wearing such vivid colors and most of the fabric seems to scream "you don't need to cut me up into something stylish...I'm the star of the show just as I am!" While I remain a slave of color coordinating my clothes, these women (and men) are able to make wrapping fabric around your waist and throwing on a top with a color scheme in another hemisphere look like a complete artform. What makes it particularly unique is that this is not an individual thing, an entire society takes part in this festival of color.

{Photos from Ferdinand Reus, rogerards, Sergio Pessalano, doseric, unknown}

Botswana on U.S. TV

You would not believe the complete joy I experienced this afternoon when I did my daily check of Design*Sponge and saw this post about the new HBO series The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Now, you can already guess what got me hooked: textiles!!!! I literally want the fabric for each and every single outfit Jill Scott wears. This is one of the very few instances where I which I had a T.V. because I would literally breathe in all the textiles from this set.

In addition to all the bright, beautifulness that is the colors on this set, I love the fact that there is actually an entire show, set in Africa (those kind HBO people literally brought all their equipment and the full 9 yds to Botswana to get this right), about Africans (the show is based on the fiction series by Alexander McCall Smith about a female detective in Botswana), the show focuses on the best face of the country and by extent the continent*. No war, starving babies, etc. here!


And just in case the pictures don't woe you completely....just check out this video about the music!!! The dance troupe at minute 7:43 is just out of control!! I know...I'm literally about to burst with excitement here!! Stuff like this is seriously dangerous for me, because I just want to run to the quickest website and buy a plane ticket back to anywhere Africa!




* I'm not going to get into the "of all the countries in Africa, Anthony Minghella couldn't find a single African woman to play the lead" line of thinking because this is Hollywood after all. In addition, I love Jill Scott and if you are going to get an American to play the role, this beautiful sister from the City of Brotherly Love will do just fine thank you very much!

Vlisco

You KNOW i love sharing these new ad campaigns with you:

Vlisco

I'm just LOVING this new ad campaign for Vlisco's new fabrics!!

Textile Museum Inspiration

Good Morning!
How was your weekend? I had a pretty quite one, but I did get out there and do a few new things. On Saturday, I went to the Textile Museum here in Washington. First, I love textiles and second I love free museum (the best of course being the Met in NYC) so it was a great combination for me. There were two interesting exhibits: Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas and Accessories from the Bolivan Highlands both of which were quite interesting. It's a small museum which is nice but it definitely inspired me to check out the Smithsonian's textile collection.

After that I met up with my Spanish tutor which was great minus the fact that I hadn't eaten all day and struggled to focus on the language rather than my growling stomach. But I just glad that I've started doing this. It's amazing how quickly one can lose a language if you don't speak it frequently. I'm sure about stint of living in a Spanish speaking country would quickly solve this problem for me, but since that's not going to happen right now, this is a great alternative. I still have to conquer French and start Portuguese so I have a LONG way to go!

When I got home, I was inspired by my trip to the museum to show you some of the fabrics I've picked up over the years in various parts of eastern Africa. Some I bought without thinking too much and now with ALL of them, I'm still considering what will be the best use of these in my apartment. Any suggestions are more than welcome. hope you enjoy!


(All pics were taken by yours truly)

Carpet rides

I've never really paid that much attention to rugs until very very recently as I've started decorating my apartment. I was sitting in the living room, on a couch that will hopefully be gone by the end of the week, and thinking about what kind of area rug I could put on the floor that would go well with the yellow walls. Something that would convey my fun but cosy personality but not make the room lot too crazy. Well, my mind traveled north of the continent (of Africa that is) and landed in Morocco where these beautiful carpets can be found (at a much more reasonable cost than that which I'm finding in Washington shops and Craigslist) and now I can't get enough. Seeing textiles like this really gets my wheels!!
I especially love that you can find such gorgeousness hanging from buildings and just cruising the streets and of course in the souks!
Photos from flickr.com

Bogolanfini - Mud Cloth

I'm loving this use of Bogolanfini fabric

As you may have noticed, I love textiles, however, Bogolanfini fabric of Mali has always left me a bit stomped as my little imagination just couldn't see how to really use the fabric in a way that really suited my tastes. I'm sure this has something to do with my love of bright color and the mud clothes that I've seen have mostly been in darker colors.


However, there is much to be admired! Since I've been back in the U.S., I've been constantly surprised but how much the 'green' revolution has taken hold in the little time that I was away. In particular (again, particular to me since I constant cruise interior design/textile stuff), I'm amazed at the amount of organic fabrics are out in the market. Similar to the Kalamkari process used in from India, making of a Bogolanfini fabric is a long natural process that uses the best of mother-nature and is infused with the story of the artists making these fabrics.

Anyway, while I was in DC last week, I went into a store in Adams Morgan that has a lot of African and Asian furniture, textiles, masks, etc. I saw a pile of mud cloth fabrics for sale and even saw a mega pillow with a mud cloth covering and it all got me thinking more about how I could really use this fabric to suit my tastes, and the more I see the more inspired I become!

(other pictures from Flickr)

Something New at Vlisco

By now you all know how much I love African textiles and how I'm always excited about the new collections that Vlisco delivers and this time is no exception. There are several pieces in this collection that are a perfect blend of the traditional African wax print styles but updated in a very modern way. I hope you enjoy!