Now THIS is slow fashion...
My excitement about the launch of our new peace silk square scarves is a bit overwhelming. The scarf is where Beastly began as it was the first product we produced and sold back in 2015. Since then, we have added many new pieces from skirts and dresses to aprons and weekender totes. To get back to scarves, such a timeless and essential accessory, feels appropriate and just right as we round 10 years in business.
This product might be new but the beautiful, slow creation process certainly is not. It begins with me drawing and tweaking and re-tweaking the design on paper with pencil, pens, or paints. The elements of the design are then carved into wooden blocks by craftsmen to be used as stamps. Each color in a design has its own block. The design is printed on cut pieces of fabric, one color at a time, on large workshop tables. Once one color is complete and dried, the next is added. If a design has four colors, that means that every scarf needs to be printed four times.
The printing process cannot be sped up. To rush could compromise the symmetry of the pattern or cause the ink to not fully saturate. The printing of each design is methodical and I'm sure very tedious when more colors and finer details are added. Thank heavens for the skill, attention to detail, and patience of our partners in Jaipur!
Fortunately, the prints are not perfect. A little pink smudge or a blue dot or a green drip might make its way on to the printed fabric. These are the artifacts of making something by hand. They are real proof of what a Beastly customer has paid for...a wearable piece of art.
It is this slow art form that has helped us bring our unique prints to life since 2015. We hope you love our new square scarves (I promise they're coming soon!) as much as we do!
xoxo Torrey
PS Thank you, amazing Sonia Jain, for the photos!
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