You guys and gals, our beloved Tribe, have always loved the textile designs that are featured in our bags, which originated with the Champa Kingdom and are woven in the Binh Thuan & Ninh Thuan Provinces of Vietnam... In the name of increasing demand for the artisans so they can grow their family weaving businesses, we listened carefully to your feedback for inspiration to think of new ways to increase demand even more!
Typically we hand select the most traditional textile designs, but for this round we took a new approach... The feedback from you stylish and well travelled individuals, was that you liked our Cham designs, but were curious to see patterns that were bigger and bolder. We took that feedback to heart and asked the artisans if they'd be interested in teaming up with Ethnotek on a new artistic endeavor to take their most classic textile motif "Dog Foot & Cucumber" and enlarge it to take on a modern and even pixelated look... They loved the idea and were excited for the new creative challenge! So, we decided to collaborate with the kingdom!
As it is with most of our artisans we work with, they design them from things they see in everyday life. In the Champa Kingdom, pets and animals are sacred and loved. Dogs run freely throughout the village and their paw prints are seen everywhere. Hence the ‘Dog Foot’ design. The second element of the new Motif is the 'cucumber' design, which is an abstraction of the triangular or diamond-like shapes inside the core of the vegetable which can be seen when sliced open. Cool huh?!
Without further ado, here's a look at the Limited Edition Vietnam 9 Raja Thread and Raja Backpack. We hope you love it as much as we do. It's a new approach to our socially responsible sourcing model. This will be an interesting experiment to see how it goes. The artisans are proud of it and so are we. Your purchase is your vote for how much you dig the design and support this modern method of Ethnotek artisan collaborations. Don't be shy, share it on social media, talk about it, ask us questions. We'd love to hear your feedback on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. We're always listening!
