The Makers | Traditional shawls worn by Mexican cowboys
Mexchic is a design company which works in unison with master artisans in fusing elements of design with traditional Mexican hand work such as weaving, embroidery, ikat dying, beading and sculpting in natural materials such as wool, cotton, wood, leather, horn, silver and horse hair. They stringently follow the guidelines set by the World Fair Trade Organisation and part of the Slow movement which is a principle we are keen to promote at reste.
“We pride ourselves in creating low impact, socially and ecologically responsible, hand-made, high-end products in original designs,” says Christina Hattler, founder of Mexchic.
The wool blankets supplied by Mexchic are made in the beautiful mountainous, pine-tree filled region of Central Mexico using the highest quality virgin wool.
The designs are beautiful, modern and subtle. All styles are made with natural undyed, untreated wool, in soft shades of creams and grey. Any slight imperfections you might come across in the blankets are due to the delicate hand-processing of the wool.
The sheep are herded in the open mountain ranges, in the traditional manner with shepherd dogs, walking miles every day. The wool from these sheep is then sold to the 'taller' or studio which weaves the blankets.
These blankets are woven on vintage swiss power shuttle looms from the 1930's and the textile is traditionally used in Mexico as a 'sarape' or shawl in the colder mountainous regions and often worn by 'vaqueros' or cowboys to protect them when riding at night.
Some off the blankets are then hand embroidered in a minimal pattern of triangles and lines and the edges stitched in a contrasting thread. Mexchic works directly with 15 women in Malinalco, Mexico as part of an exciting project giving them the opportunity to earn an extra income by embroidering the blankets in their spare time in the comfort of their own homes.
(Apologies, some of these products are no longer available)
