
Selvedge Fair: Chapel Collection
This March, Selvedge is hosting one of our popular artisan fairs in the beautiful city of Bath. Over fifty curated exhibitors will be selling a range of rare vintage fabrics, covetable haberdashery and skilfully handmade textile treasures. The fair offers the perfect opportunity to meet makers, catch up with old friends and pick up that special something.
Chapel Collection is a carefully curated collection of beautiful clothes and accessories. Apart from its own collection it also works to promote young designers in India and South East Asia, including Injiri, Deya, Eka, and Maku. Chapel Collection showcases traditional crafts, handloom, block printing, embroidery, the use of natural dyes, where possible.
The name Injiri means ‘real India’ and originates from a name given to prized fabrics exported to Africa in the 18th century. The driving force of the brand is the talented designer Chinar Farooqui, whose passion lies in studying traditional textile, dress and the stories behind them. As a young girl, she travelled to craft villages with her mother, who filled their home with handmade cloth, such as local indigo-dyed fabrics. Studying fine arts and textile design led the way to Farooqui’s own label, which Selvedge first featured on the pages of our Blue & White issue.
Another brand supported by Chapel Collection is Maku: an Indian label that works against the fast fashion sentiment of the West. In our world of multiple choice, Maku strives to safeguard local diversity, historic textile practices and inherent craft knowledge by deciding to promote clothes in a single colour: indigo. Maku was founded by Santanu Das in 2011 after working at a wall cover design company in New York. There, he began to look for an alternative meaning of luxury in the form of indigenous craft. There are now 100 weavers working for Santanu. Drawing on their knowledge he makes jamdani fabrics, keeping the craft alive and believing that as India’s textile traditions disappear, with them may vanish family histories preserved in the fabrics.
3 comments
Hi
Are you able to tell me how far in advance the tickets must be bought to get the ‘advance’ price. I may not know till a couple of days before if I can attend – will this be too late?
Hi Hazel, thanks for your comment! If you click where it says “click here”, you can get to the fair page. I will underline the link to make it clearer.
Best wishes,
Jessica
Selvedge Magazine
Hi. When I click on the link to get info on the Selvedge Fair, I just get info on the Chapel Collection. Unless I’ve missed something, always possible.
Hazel Hardy.