Materials Index
We source our materials deliberately and thoughtfully, collaborating with artisans and local mills to give you the best fabrics and textiles. Many of these are endangered textiles or techniques from the SWANA region that we strive to perpetuate with our clothing designs.
Here are some of them:
Moire Fabric
Moire is derived from the English word “mohair,” itself derived from the arabic name mukhayyar (مُخَيَّر, lit. "chosen"), a cloth made from Angora wool. Mukhayyar (مُخَيَّر) descends from khayyara (خيّر, lit. "he chose"). "Chosen" is meant in the sense of "a choice, or excellent, cloth"
This is a fabric that goes back to ancient Egypt, where thin stripes of cotton and linen were juxtaposed on papyrus and pressed together to create a shimmering effect. It traveled during the Silk Road, and Moire became a popular fabric treatment in the 17th century in the Western world, where fabrics were folded in the middle and crushed under stones of 30 to 40 tons.
In modern day, two identical fabrics are put on one another - and rollers with ribs on them create the watermark effect needed to make moire. The motif is revealed by a calendaring process: crushing the two fabrics under immense pressure and with high temperatures between two rollers before the two fabrics are separated. Fabrics become glossier and shinier as a result, and are adorned with subtle gradients of shimmering color resembling a water stain: the staple moire motif.
We use silk moire fabrics that are made in Damascus, Syria.
Sayye
Sayye is a fabric made out of cotton or cotton and silk, that is local to the Levantine region. It is striped, and is commonly used for home applications, to make pillows or linens. It can commonly be found as an upholstery fabric in Arab homes. All of our sayye fabrics originate from a small mill in Damascus, Syria, that we have known inter-generationally, as Tala’s grandmother, who is from Damascus, used to work with them too.
Crochet
We work with groups of women artisans in Lebanon on crochet pieces that are entirely handmade. The bulk of our crochet pieces are made by artisans based in Jounieh, and we sometimes commission pieces from an atelier of Druze artisans in Baakline, Lebanon. All our yarns are sourced from Turkey, we use wool and cotton yarns unless noted otherwise, and some yarn is made of DMC cotton tea-dyed in Lebanon.
Embroidery
Most of our embroidery is done by two women’s groups of artisans apart from our Aghabani fabrics (see below.) We work with women artisans in Sad el Baouchriyeh, Beirut, on most of our ready-to-wear pieces. For our hand embroidered t-shirts, we work with an atelier of Druze artisans in Baakline, Lebanon. All of our embroidery flosses are DMC cotton.
Denim
We source our premium denim fabrics domestically in the USA, they are always 100% cotton denim.
Aghabani
The Syrian Aghabani embroidery technique, originating from Damascus, is a chainstitch silk embroidery technique traditionally used for tablecloths where the designs are hand-stamped on cotton and filled with embroidery of different colored threads. Each design is unique and inspired by the region’s landscapes and flora, which is why there are a lot of leaves or vines depicted with the embroidery. Because of conflicts in Syria, Aghabani is not as in demand as it used to be, so we endeavored to work with local expert artisans in Damascus who have specialized in the technique for decades, in an effort to perpetuate the craft.
Tarq
Tark thread is sourced in Baalbek, Lebanon, and is either 100% silver metal thread or 100% gold metal thread. We weave and embroider with this thread following techniques that manipulate the metal with quick sewing strikes in order to flatten it onto fabric. This craft is endangered and can currently only be found in very specific pockets of the world, including Lebanon, which is why we work with a women’s collective in Baalbek that specializes in this trade and executes most of our Tark embroidery work.
Ikat
Ikat means ‘to bind or tie clouds,’ and is a type of woven textile done by resist dyeing sections of the yarns prior to weaving the fabric. It is widespread in Asia, but its exact origins remain unknown. Nevertheless, its presence in Indonesia and China from the 6th century, and its expansion to the whole of Asia suggest that the Silk Roads expanded its influence. It flourished in Uzbekistan under the name of abrbandi, a persian word for “cloud”. Because of the silk roads, ikats were popularized in countries like Turkey or Lebanon. You can still find these particular ikat motifs in many oriental households, and the fabric has remained a part of the Levantine and Arab culture. The fabric has “nervous” white crosslines that appear in regular intervals, made from knots at both ends of the bundled warp which is either stretched inside or wound around the ikat frame. At this time we don’t work with ikat fabrics.