This is a Dress

This is a wonderful summer dress from Maiwa Handprints, located on Granville Island, here in Vancouver.

Maiwa started as a fabric art supply store, but branched out into clothing, accessories and home décor items that it sources from village craftspeople and artisans in India and surrounding areas.

They contract directly with these craftspeople to create viable livelihoods and to keep the art of handcraft not only alive, but celebrated, appreciated, and enjoyed. Many of the items have beautiful hand dyed and hand printed patterns, using natural fibres and natural dyes – it’s a wonderful place to shop. I have many treasured pieces from their store.

Maiwa does fabric art workshops and even hosts a travel tour to visit these craftspeople, I believe. There are profiles of their artisans and lots of interesting information on their website www.maiwa.com

This dress is supposed to be wrinkly, and you twist it up and pack it in your suitcase – it’s perfect for travelling, and I’ve been doing a lot of that this summer. I just washed it and hung it up damp to dry, while scrunching it together to keep the wrinkly texture.

Here’s to another beautiful art form.