Hi there!
Do you remember when I told you about my trip to India? Do you remember when I said that I met a lovely cooperative 200km away from Jaipur? Well it was totally unexpected. My friend and I contacted the cooperative the day before our stop in that area and we scheduled an appointment.
Like each appointments we did during our trip, everything was scheduled the day before and actually it worked great that way!
We were first welcome by Praveen who offered us the traditional Massala Chai Tea. And then Fiona, his wife showed up and introduce herself and explained how she managed to start and run successfully this cooperative. I immediately felt comfortable and I was completely conquered when we visited the building and met the people working there.
30 people are on the site, the other people who work for the cooperative are women who bring their stitching work at their place, in their villages, and come back when they finish.
It was nice to see an environment filled with joy and good mood. We felt that the people here were happy comparing to some other places we visited before. The building just got extended, it was bright, large and looked so nice. The new rooms where still empty but many future projects for them where already planned.
They have one person who do all of the block printing part and one of the new room is now dedicated for him.
When I saw the quality of their work and the fabric they were working with I wanted to give a try to collaborate with them. In December, they were still outsourcing to get their fabric dyed but the new building was extended also to get a space dedicated to natural dyes. In January they started to dye their fabric onsite.
I also really appreciate that they know exactly where come from their cotton, who are the farmers, who homespun and hand-weave. It was never the case for the other companies or cooperatives I visited before.
So I decided to take the opportunity while being on the site to order a small batch of jumpsuits! I ran to the hotel, grabbed the pattern and came back to decide the final details. Plain or patterns? which buttons? which fabric? colors?
It came naturally and I end up choosing for 2 kind of jumpsuits. The plain indigo and the stripe indigo.
Everything went pretty fast over there and I received the first test batch in January. I was pretty blown away by the result! So pretty and fresh, exactly what I wanted! I love them and I hope you do too!