Kalamkari Linen Shift Dress - Iron Grey , فستان كالامكاري من الكتان - رمادي حديدي

A shift dress which doubles up nicely ovwer pants when worn as a tunic. Wear it loose or give it shape with the belt.

• Gentle boat neck
• Shaping at bust with darts
• Loose 3 / 4 sleeves
• Knee length
• Side seam pockets
• Crafted from 40s weight linen 
• Includes self-fabric sash
• Kalamkari is crafted exclusively from natural dyes, mordants and resists - its a living cloth that should be treated with care and may shift shades with time. These natural dyes are painted on cloth by hand by a women's co-operative, in an extremely laborious process that blends art with nature's chemistry.

Story Behind the Textile

Creeping vines, blossoming flowers, dancing fish & exotic birds: The Kalamkari Collection draws deeply from nature for both materials & motifs. Local surroundings inspire the artists' imagination, while the pigments & mordants that create the colour on cloth are drawn entirely from the natural world.

Kalam (meaning pen) kari (meaning craftsmanship) is an art form developed in Andhra Pradesh around the 13th century. Originally used to create religious paintings on cloth to aid the acts of wandering minstrels & later used in Hindu temples, it then flourished as an art-form under the Golconda Sultanate, the Moghuls & later under the British where it became known as chintz.

HOWS is enormously proud to partner with Dwaraka, a not-for-profit organisation that trains & supports women artisans in Srikalahasthi to create the most beautiful kalamkari art work; using a kalam pen & exclusively natural mordants, dyes & resists, the artisan hand draws every every line across the surface of the cloth.

A temple town deep in India's South, Sri Kalahasthi is the historical centre of the kalam kari textile tradition. Its style of kalamkari is unique, involving 17 steps from start to completion and has received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.