A LABOUR OF LOVE
Between a fabric studio in Dallas and a home in Oman, a mother and daughter are closing the distance between them through textiles. Not long ago, Indian-born designer Mili Suleman moved from her childhood home in the Middle East to America’s north Texan metropolis to study liberal arts and graphic design. Before long she launched her own fabric studio, Kufri. Designing and producing textiles that are all handwoven in her home country of India, her mission is to preserve both handloom weaving and her familial connections.
Suleman’s designs go against loud and bustling styles of fabric design, instead opting for a beautifully understated, minimal aesthetic. Guided by a Japanese philosophy known as shibui, where each piece is crafted by the simplest means possible, Mili celebrates all of the slubs, bars and irregularities that result from crafting by hand. So often criticised in textile design, these details also encompass a character that no mass-producing machine can replicate.
From handspinning and screenprinting to ikat, mud cloth and Japanese shibori dyeing techniques, Kufri produces a wide range of luxury homeware made with a lot of love. Visiting India frequently to oversee production, Mili sees her studio as an amalgamation of her multi-cultural background, naming the company after the small hill station in India’s beautiful countryside.
Blending her desires to preserve hand-crafted textile techniques and her bond with her mother Maya (an avid quilter who still lives in the Middle East), this Dallas textiles studio now acts as a special nexus between differing cultures across the world, paying special attention to the unique and personal relationships that fuel them.
www.kufrilifefabrics.com
www.kufrilife.com
Suleman’s designs go against loud and bustling styles of fabric design, instead opting for a beautifully understated, minimal aesthetic. Guided by a Japanese philosophy known as shibui, where each piece is crafted by the simplest means possible, Mili celebrates all of the slubs, bars and irregularities that result from crafting by hand. So often criticised in textile design, these details also encompass a character that no mass-producing machine can replicate.
From handspinning and screenprinting to ikat, mud cloth and Japanese shibori dyeing techniques, Kufri produces a wide range of luxury homeware made with a lot of love. Visiting India frequently to oversee production, Mili sees her studio as an amalgamation of her multi-cultural background, naming the company after the small hill station in India’s beautiful countryside.
Blending her desires to preserve hand-crafted textile techniques and her bond with her mother Maya (an avid quilter who still lives in the Middle East), this Dallas textiles studio now acts as a special nexus between differing cultures across the world, paying special attention to the unique and personal relationships that fuel them.
www.kufrilifefabrics.com
www.kufrilife.com