NY and the GF debut

Here are some updates from our first ever trade fair in NYC this past weekend:

This was our entire luggage for our booth set up, products and our clothes for the week!

The time is 6 am, I'm a bundle of nerves, Prashant is probably looking through our latest planning updates

Our booth, as we found it 2 days before the event. So much work, so much potential (and so much stress!)

Here I'm stringing up the hand-lettered signage, Prashant is making hooks to hang them: DIY + improv!

This was the messiest it looked, before it all got better!

This view helped as we worked non-stop to get the space lookin spiffy!

Day 1: hello New York, all bright and sunny!

The newspaper-head wearing the hair towel added a lot of quirkiness to our install, hehe!

Super happy with the way our fabric and re-purposed cardboard signs turned out!

We got a lot of compliments for using the yarn as a simple and fun way to hang up our fabrics :)

These dudes looked ridiculously tropical in the sunlight!

Cardboard, white markers and twine = friendly handmade signs

The daylight at the Javits center did a lot to promote the outdoor and comfy nature of these fabrics!

This little Ganesha kept an eye on our stuff for us; thank you sir!  ♥

We also had a bunch of friends stop by our space too: thanks Shivangi, Brookes and Nupur for all the fun conversation and help with everything! Carli came by with her team to do a little interview about our work for Quirky; here's the article, yay!

So grateful that our little debut was so warmly recieved, cant wait for what's next! xo, Chitra.

2013 reasons to get excited!

Its three months since my last post here and what a busy time it's been! Firstly a very Happy New Year to all of you :)

Here at Kara we've been frantically working on some great new wholesale orders as well as gearing up for our debut at the New York Gift Fair in the juried Global Handmade section!

We've divided up the work pretty evenly: Indu has been handling the production and follow up of all the weaving work in Kerala and I am working on all the trade fair set up details here in Boston. As I sit here going over my million checklists and looking at the busy few weeks ahead, I'm also giddy with excitement for all the wonderful people we'll have a chance to meet!

So if you're there, stop by booth #532 to meet us!

Summer 2012 Updates

• Our first ever Free product giveaway (yes, its all free!) contest on Facebook has just started! All you have to do is upload a favorite summer picnic photo to win free fabrics! More details here.

• Indu was interviewed by the Women's Web Magazine, here's the read.

• Unbelievably successful Annual Clearance Sale of our previous collections. It ends on August 15 2012, so you've still got a few days to get the best deals!

• Guest blogging at Yours Sustainably, thanks Jessica!

• Our fabrics are now available at the Good Earth stores in India and Terrain (Anthropologie's sister concern) in the United States.

• We worked with Wendell Rodricks to create this custom threaded shawl based on his design. So pumped to see it on the runway at the Lakme India Fashion Week in Mumbai this past week!

• Our Fair Trade certification process made some headway as we were visited by the Fair Trade Forum India's team to verify details of our team and collaborators (including the weaving co-operatives). As we hope to hear back from them, we're keeping our fingers crossed for the green signal :)

• We experimented with some thicker weave techniques, with some lovely results.

• Sarah Lin of Ellie Fun Day visited our studio and wrote up a sweet article on her blog with some nice photos!

•  Lakshmi Rammohan, the director of Dreamweaver Weddings commissioned us to create some custom giveaways and bride+groom sets for some upcoming events for Fall 2012. This is still in underway, but we're so excited to work with this incredibly talented event manager!

Wendell Rodricks and India Fashion Week 2012

Wendell Rodricks (image courtesy WendellRodricks.com)

A few months ago we got in touch with the Indian fashion designer Wendell Rodricks after Revathy (our project partner) mentioned our work to him. He had an idea to do a custom weave for his runway show at the Lakme India Fashion Week 2012 in Mumbai that concluded this past week ("Omg, for real?!!"-- was my reaction when Indu told me). To say that we were over-the-moon was quite an understatement, as we've been fans of this talented designer's work for ages!

Based out of Goa, Wendell's works a lot of structure and form into his design, and the hallmark of his creations have always been the way he works with white and off-white to make the garment's cut and construction stand out. In so many ways, his work fit our portfolio of fabrics so effortlessly!

What he wanted was a woven shawl with loose yarn detailing in White, Black and Brown shades. He sent us a detailed drawing and images of how he wanted this piece to work. We set about working with our weavers and here is the finished piece in our studio and on the runway at the LFW2012 (Show images courtesy The Times of India, Rediff.com)

Quick grainy shot of the piece in our studio, before we sent it over to Wendell.

The Times of India coverage of the show (images from TOI)

Another image of the runway event at LFW 2012 (via rediff.com)

As this collaboration draws to a close, we're so utterly thrilled to check this item off our dream-wishlist, and are overjoyed about getting the humble Kerala thorthu on the fashion runway! Wendell, we're so thrilled & proud to work with you and look forward to many such opportunities! xoxo, Indu & Chitra.

(ps: If you're a fashion designer and reading this, yes, email us about working together!)

A north-south collaboration: Khamir + Kara Weaves

Design of our invite for the show together with Khamir

In 2008, a year after our collaboration with the Banyan, we got in touch with Khamir, a non-government organization from the northern state of Gujarat. Through a chance re-connection with some of her earlier collaborators while in Ahmedabad (the wonderful Sushma Iyengar), Indu heard of the wonderful work of the Khamir resouce center as a way to revitalize Kachchh's creative industries. She contacted the director Meera Goradia and learnt that they was seeking to do a sale & exhibition of their work in Bangalore with a collaborator. Upon hearing what we do, Meera asked if we would be interested: and of course we said yes!

The Banyan + meeting the President of India

left-right: Revathy, Sreedevi, Vandana of the Banyan, Surya and Indu

We love to meet people who share our world views and what we love even more is the opportunity to get to work with them. In this post I wanted to briefly cover an endearing collaboration we did in 2007 with the Banyan via our co-founder Revathy. At the opening ceremony, we also got to meet the (ex-)President of the nation, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam! From collaborations to meeting inspiring leaders: how did this all come about?