Palestinian heritage and craftsmanship
Palestinian heritage and craftsmanship
Amidst the current devastation in Palestine we wanted to share what we learnt on our many travels to this beautiful country. During our first journey to occupied Palestine’s West Bank in 2012, we witnessed the extreme injustice and discrimination the Palestinian people were facing every day. In many ways it reminded us of our late father’s stories he had told us after visiting South Africa during apartheid in the late 80’s. Despite the Palestinian people’s harsh and unjust reality, we realised that they were some of the most generous, kind and strongest people we had ever met. Their beautiful culture is rich in music, crafts, spirituality and of course delicious food.
Wanting to share this incredible culture with others we quickly learnt that Tatreez Embroidery is at the heart of their cultural identity. The practice of Tatreez Embroidery originated in Palestine over 3000 years ago and the unique motifs of embroidery signifies Palestinian heritage, especially for women.
Though we had great passion and ambition to start up a Palestinian project we soon realised the enormity of this challenge. Due to Palestine being an occupied nation controlled by oppressive policies to prevent trade, it was impossible for us to create structures and partnerships to have embroidery supplied and exported. This meant our idea of sharing the beauty of Tatreez Embroidery through fashion came to a standstill.
However, we never lost hope and kept believing in realising this project as a symbol of peace and co-existence through the arts as a contrast to the injustice and violence that have dominated the region for decades.In 2019 we were introduced to Palestinian-Israeli brand Adish.
The brand was founded as a collaborative effort between Palestinian-American artist Jordan Nassar, Palestinian Qussay K from Ramallah and Israelis Amit Luzon and Eyal Eliyahu. They work with traditional living crafts in Palestine to counter the systematic erasure of Palestinian cultural heritage. Through their network of crafts communities and export structure it suddenly became possible for us to finally realise our Tatreez Embroidery Project in 2022.
Despite the heartbreaking situation we have been able to continue a limited production and engage with communities in The West Bank. This is the most complex production we have ever done and we consider it a cultural art expression, which we are very proud of.
Our First Tatreez Embroidery Collection
Body: Cotton 100% (Organic pima cotton) Detail: Tatreez embroidery Feature: Natural dye Country and region: Peru
Our first collaboration collection consists of sweatshirt and hoodies with total focus on craft, materials and quality. Instead of working with traditional Tatreez design, we chose the embroidery to be in our own colour-ways with iconic lyrics by the legendary Bob Marley, who represents the spirit of co-existence and the liberation of the people. Each garments is made from 100% natural pima cotton from the Peruvian coastline, all naturally dyed with the highest organic certification.
