For this perfecto jacket, the indigo-dyed cotton damask fabric was traditionally used for baby carriers and blankets. The symbolic iconography of zig-zag lines and geometric birds both protects its wearer and tells the migration of the indigenous people across China over the last millennium.
It took me one year of searching village-to-village to find someone who could hand-weave this damask fabric for the collection. A local expert found this older woman in Zhaoxing Village; she is one of only three grandmothers in the village who still retains the know-how of how to weave this pattern. It will take her 30 days to re-weave enough fabric for one jacket.
For the silk dress, the process of weaving silk threads on a hand-loom is time-consuming and can only be found in the most remote villages in eastern Guizhou. The entire process is done by one family in their home: raising silk worms, spinning the thread, weaving on the handloom, and finishing the fabric in boiled water.
The silk fabric was hand-woven by Miao grandmothers who can still be found raising silk worms inside their homes. The worms were raised during the months of April to June, when they can be fed the fresh leaves of the local mulberry trees.The soft yellow hue was developed using fresh flower petals, collected from the surrounding mountain forest, that only bloom during the month of May.
This delicate cross-stitch panel features flower, grain, and water iconography that are used as story-telling tools to pass-down the oral history of their people. The hand-embroidery took one week to complete.
Above look credits: Stockton Johnson (photographer), Vanessa Bellugeon (stylist)