Kindred Sisters of Jodhpur

KissinCussin has often been cited for it’s creative use of colour and for this there’s nowhere more abundant for inspiration than India … it’s a treasure chest of intoxicating imagery and an exotic, natural sense of ‘cool’.

One morning we came across a group of women sitting by the side of a road, so enchanting, their vastly colourful saris and happy charming faces all blended into a delicious feast for the eyes. These ‘sisters’ had gathered together for no other reason than an early morning sing-a-long and to be together before continuing with their day. We were delighted when they invited us to join them - at first a little shy - before 3 claps of our hands we were beaming and singing out loud with our new Hindu ‘sisters’ … another treasured experience for us to take from Jodhpur.

We’re always captivated by the mystery, the desert, the colour of Jodhpur and as mentioned above an inherent sense of ‘cool’ that just oozes out of the people … here are some images to tie up our ‘Rajasthani’ stream of posts and to show you something more of what we love xx

"Blinky"

When we say that KissinCussin is ‘made with love’ it spreads through the whole tapestry of our label, hopefully our posts will begin to show you why. This post is focused around our adorable fabric supplier who we affectionately nickname “Blinky.”

Each year we make a pilgrimage to our Mecca in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. We worship this place because we get to spend a whole day locked with multitudes of fabric and prints to sort through for inspiration.

We also go to check on current fabric production and develop future ideas along with “Blinky” and his factory’s capabilities. He uses old-fashioned screen-printing processes, which are then touched up by hand. We love that we support these traditional methods and they further complete the domestic, hand-made appeal of our label.

We stumbled across “Blinky” during our first visit to India, on a fabric reccy in Jodhpur, and since then we’ve all held a deep affinity for each other. He decided to take a chance, to help two young girls with a lot of passion and vision, by allowing very small fabric runs. In many ways he made it possible for us to go forwards and to find an edge of unique identity through our prints. It’s always encouraging to see that “Blinky” believes in us in his proud grandfatherly way … after work and meetings he will always arrange a ‘family program,’ which can mean anything from a trek through the desert to camels or visiting an ancient palace to join in a private wedding party, who knows, it’s always a ‘surprising’… and of course each morning we join “Blinky” and his friends at their sports club for butter filled toast and sugar infused chai while he tells them proudly of our progress.

We always leave Jodhpur with a warm fuzzy glow, reasserting the sense of love that we feel and which pours through our label … our minds and souls are filled with ideas and inspiration for the next round of designing and our hearts are smiling because we have someone in another corner of the world who really believes in us ….

We love our visits to Jodhpur

Making Rainbows in Rajasthan

Jodhpur in Rajasthan is fast becoming our ‘third’ home away from home; it’s where we source all of our fabrics and where we are lucky enough to visit once or twice each year.

It is also one of the most inspirational places we have ever been to and provides a marvellous backdrop of imagery, colour, people and experiences … all of which we pour into the fabric selection and design of each KissinCussin range.

This year we were lucky enough to have our friend and previous KC model traveling along with us on our way to Talalla Bay. And so cousin Jess with her wonderful talents as photographer and cousin Hayley, a worthy assistant, were eager to seize the opportunity to develop a photo-shoot in the Rajasthani desert. We styled our model against this marvellous backdrop of inspiration using our favourites from the SS 2010/2011 collection and some serious Indian bling and headscarves.

I can’t quite find the words to say how unreal this experience was, how lucky we were to capture some of our most vibrant fabrics and pieces against this seductive desert location and breathe such incredible life into our clothes, but the following pictures can.

They give a ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse of the day …. the Rajasthani desert complete with camels… the sheep and sheep herders … the wonderful Brahmin blue of Jodhpur fort … the smiles and colour of all the people who helped and who we met along the way … a truly fabulous day.

To view the full shoot and other marketing materials please visit our facebook fan page www.facebook.com/kissincussin

Thank you – infinity – to everyone involved xx

It's been a while

The KissinCussin’s have had a little break from this blog while we’ve been busy nurturing the foundations of our label, but we’ve since come to realise there is so much love, care and unique experience that goes into each piece that must go unnoticed. We are after all a label ‘made with love’ and hopefully the coming posts (which we vow to update regularly) will show you why.

As a start we wanted to give some insight into vastly colourful life we’ve created here in Sri Lanka, very lucky that we are to spend 3-4 months each year creating our designs and manufacturing with the wonderful ladies in our beloved ‘Talalla Bay’.

The following pics mainly feature the Peraherra festivals which take place from May through to August in Sri Lanka in many of the villages and bigger towns. They are religious festivals (Buddhist mainly) highlighting the birth, day and enlightenment day of the lord Buddha … think drumming, chanting, trumpets, dancing, elephants, costume and lots of Sri Lankan smiles and laughter. So colourful, so unique … hope you enjoy xx