Thread Caravan

July 12, 2016

Earlier in the year, Caitlin and the Thread Caravan team reached out to us at STATE wanting to collaborate. If you don't know Thread Caravan, know this: their team orchestrates picturesque and educational trips to art and craft centers around the world. Artisans of various trades teach and mentor Thread Caravan travelers, which means those artisans aren't pressured to focus so much on selling their goods, but can focus on the art and process of their craft. 

STATE loves all of these ideas: artists should be able to focus on process and make art for the sake of art; cultural and community centric crafts should be supported, propagated, and handed down; women and men should be well compensated for their hard work; our spending should have a positive impact on some community, even if it isn't our home community. 

Thread Caravan was kind enough to bring us back the most gorgeous Guatemalan textiles you've ever seen. For the first few weeks we had them in studio, the STATE team essentially took turns draping ourselves in the fabric and dreaming up ideas for each piece.  

Ultimately the pieces were used in two projects near and dear to STATE's heart: 

The rocking alpaca was by far one of the biggest projects in the Secret Catalog, and was a collaboration between Adrienne of STATE and her parents' wood working company, August Lohr. It started as a dream gift for Adrienne's daughter's first birthday, and now a second one is in production and will be driven to its new home in New York at the end of the summer. Although the Alpaca is pretty dang cool, she wouldn't be the same without her Thread Caravan adornments. 

Sunday pants are a STATE classic, and this pair sewn with Thread Caravan textiles is one of the most comfortable pairs ever. They sold like hot cakes in the Secret Catalog, and we envy whatever lucky lady bagged them. 

 

Thread Caravan and STATE are a match made in heaven, and we feel so lucky to have worked with them. Hopefully many more collaborations await us in the future. 

PLUS check out Caitlin of Thread Caravan rocking a STATE smock in Oaxaca, learning the process of making mezcal:

*le sigh*

 

PREVIOUS ARTICLE
NEXT ARTICLE