March 05, 2018

Five things you didn’t know about Generation’s Cottage Line

The reason why you need it in your life How would you describe yourself? Regular and unspectacular? Nah! You’re nifty, unique, and as savvy as they come. You wish to make a statement with whatever you do and wear. The OTT printed floral three piece suits – which become a uniform of sorts a few weeks into the lawn season – are definitely not your thing. You crave for exclusivity. See, we know you inside out! Since your style is exclusive, shopping for you isn’t simply hopping to the mall and picking a few basic white pants and printed kurtas. It calls for being open to experimentation and hard work. And that’s where our Cottage line steps in.

This line employs innovative one-off atypical techniques by women across rural areas in Pakistan. Here’s everything you need to know about it. It is ALL hand crafted The embroidery is done by hand! From Aabla (mirror work) and resham to marori, the cottage line makes use of various traditional techniques popular in our culture. This year we’ve experimented with kacha taanka, ralli, patti work, shadow work, appliqué, tarkashi, and mukey ka kaam.

The jewel toned cotton fabric forms the perfect canvas for the colourful embroidery. We have FOUR unique handmade collections for every part of the day! You have the Gypsy Folklore for those night soirées. It is inspired by hand woven Iranian marsh Arab rugs with a combination of small floral prints. You can expect a collection featuring macro appliqués on screen printed floral shirts with tasselled dupattas!

The Tales of the Folk collection is all about chattha, tassel, and coin details on shirts paired with taarkashi striped dupattas! And is perfect for those mid-day lunches. Inspired from Rachel Pedder’s botanical water colour illustrations, Flowers in the Air collection is perfect for those brunches with its embroideries in pastel shades. If you’re a chikan fan, then this is for you, because in addition to applique, it features chikan too.

How does two-sided golden, jacquard dupatta sound? As awesome as a twilight gathering, right? The Reminiscence line, with its six suits, is all about screen prints inspired from the Jacobean floral motifs combined with running kaantha stitches on prints in various patterns.

Cottage Line keeps our craft alive It is reported that “since 2007 Google search interest for the term ‘handmade’ has more than doubled”. People are becoming increasingly aware of the uniqueness that comes with handmade objects and we’re lucky to have a rich reservoir of cultural craftsmanship.

And moreover, we consistently come up with our cottage collections round the year! How do we do that? By giving back to the community The cottage line creates job opportunities for all those talented women who wish to attain economic independence through their craft! “We basically reach out to regions best known for a particular craft and the women there then take our pieces. It’s a time consuming, laborious process and all the work is done with hand,” explains our Marketing Manager. “Hence, Cottage line pieces are slightly more expensive.”