‘Pink is the navy of India’ - Diana Vreeland.

I went to India for the first time last year to visit my partner’s family in Hyderabad. Indian textile design is so rich and varied. There is such an abundance of skilled craftspeople keeping traditional methods of block printing, silk weaving and ornate embroidery alive. I saw how, through necessity, recycling and repurposing is an age old Indian way of living, waste is seen as a resource in the wrong place. So I source beautiful old silk sarees for my dresses. Not only is it eco friendly but it also allows me to work with the finest cloth, of such quality that it would only be found found in the old couture houses in the west. 

This is the sketch I handed my mother a few months ago and asked if she could make my dream dress. Balloon sleeves, frilly yoke, ruffled collar, mid length, frilly hem. She said the fabric needed to be light to allow for movement and suggested she gave it ago with one of the exquisite old silk saree I had brought from India......and the rest, as they say, is history! Named Masala after my beloved Maine Coon.

 

Inside the Amande Atelier, Cinnamon offering to give my mother a hand! A family business in every sense! I so hope you have a much pleasure wearing your dress as we have had making it.

                                          x Ava