Balti Silk Itajime Dune Robe

Geometric Blati Silk Itajime Dune Robe for women, is crafted from a single length of fabric to transform beautiful fabric into wearable pieces with undulating drapes that layer and flow effortlessly. Hand-dyed using the Itajime clamp-dye technique by two of  this robe carries a striking geometric pattern in teal, camel, and cream. Luxurious silk gives it an exquisite feel and fluid movement, with mother-of-pearl buttons allowing it to be worn open as a dramatic robe or buttoned up as a loose, breezy kaftan. Falling to an asymmetric handkerchief hem, it's a piece built for evenings that call for something with real drama. A collectible find within long silk kimono robe options, this piece carries the hand-craft that defines ethical womens clothes at its best.

Story Behind the Design

The Itajime Silk Collection has been hand-crafted in the workshop of two of India's foremost Master Craftsmen; Jabbar and brother Abdullah Khatri from Bhuj, Gujarat.

Shibori is a 1300 year old tie and dye technique developed in Japan involving the folding and clamping or otherwise securing of fabric prior to dyeing. Itajime is one technique of shibori which uses pieces of wood clamped together around sections of folded fabric to resist the dye in particular shapes. Each 3m section of fabric is individually folded, clamped, tied and dyed; and this repeated several times to get layers of colours. It's a time consuming and exacting technique with bold geometric results.

In Bhuj, clamp dye techniques came into practice around 35 years ago. During that time, clamp dyeing techniques were used on traditional lungis (sarongs) to produce various designs. This was a short-lived trend, however and the technique went out of use after some 5 years. The Khatri brothers re-introduced the process in Bhuj and now create some of the finest itajime, clamp-dyed textiles in India.

Any variations or irregularities are part of the design and inherent to the production process.