A Jacket Finished... at last!

This is about to go off to the factory in Pakistan, so I really hope that I have my first complete product! All my models are off building a parallel universe or something like that in Glastonbury, so I am afraid that you have to see me wearing the jacket. I thought that I might call it "Hill Jacket", does that sound pants?

Screen Captures for the website

My friend David Midgely is starting work on the Hindu Kush website. Here are some screen captures of how it will look. Each image represents a different window and the last image is of the navbar. I think I might also have some GIFFs on the home page- I made one from film taken on my last trip to Pakistan, to see it click here.

Waistcoat Nearly Finished

I have nearly finished tweaking a waistcoat for the first collection. The lining is the 'exploded' Khyber Pass design I posted about earlier, the buttons are horn and the cut is close to the traditional Pakistani 'waskit'. Here it is modeled by the devastatingly handsome Alex Robertson during our trip to the Hindu Kush last month. He is flanked by a jeep driver of immense skill and Zar Wali Shah our guard, who was a very nice guy and also a great dancer...

A New Leopard Chasing a Markhor

The leopard chasing a markhor design has been weighing on my mind.... I have re worked it, which, depending on taste has either made the scene much clearer, or made the whole thing even naffer. I also think I will present it as a picture sewn onto the lining with a caption, as below.

Other than wool...

As well as visiting Garam Cheshma I also went to see some Kalasha friends who were celebrating Joshi, their Spring festival. The Kalash Valleys were looking hyper-bucolic, and everyone seemed heathy and happy, especially all the young people who were glammed up in the knowledge that it is marriage season. Young men let off steam with hearty pursuits like rock lobbing and wrestling. 

I also spent some time with Scottish fashion designer Adil Iqbal who is currently running a very exiting project which links local embroiderers with tweed makes from the Western Isles of Scotland. Adil fixed up my trip to see shu being made at Garam Chesma, so I owe him some serious thanks for that.

... Back From The Hindu Kush

I had a wonderful time! It was very exciting to visit Garam Cheshma the village, high in the mountains on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where shu is made. The setting was exquisitely beautiful and the people involved in making shu were at once dignified and also very helpful to me. To witness the spinning and weaving processes was something else, the machines used could have been plucked from a scene hundreds of years ago. It would be wrong to understand them as primitive though, they were obviously efficient and ergonomic. The skill involved in using them was impressive and I now have a much better understanding of the labour which goes into the fabric.

I have pasted some screen captures from the film I took at Garam Cheshma below.

Off to the Hindu Kush!

I apologise for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, but my spare time has been taken up with organising a trip to Pakistan. I leave on Friday and I am back on the 20th. Whilst out there I hope to film, photograph and interview the wonderful makers of shu!

I also want to visit these people for their famous Spring festival...

...and visit these people on their high altitude wanderings.

...and perhaps squeeze in a couple of days in this celestial valley!

Top photograph curtsey of Matan Rochlitz.