great tops

This preppy twist on a classic plaid tee will make a great alternative to plain white t-shirts. Cristina Villalobos designs this oversized top with a scoop neck and short sleeves in a pink, light blue, and navy plaid pattern. Wear it with high-waisted shorts and sneakers for the perfect weekend look. The cool cotton-blend knit makes it a great pick for travel.

Cristina's work draws inspiration from traditional Peruvian techniques and materials, contemporary styles, and retro glamour. She is currently juggling working as a designer with finishing school and raising her son.

"Kot, the two-headed eagle is featured in many traditional Guatemalan weaves and ceremonial dresses," say artisans from Women United for Artisan Development as they explain their inspiration for this cushion cover. In Maya cosmogony - indeed in many pre-Hispanic cultures - the bicephalous eagle represents a great female deity with a head to attend good and one to evil; a head that sees toward the heavens, and one toward earth, and a head to see forward and one to see back. This cotton cushion cover in a versatile alabaster color hue featuring a sienna composition featuring the eagle and other birds. Cording defines the borders, and the back features a zipper closure.

Bubbly and delightful, this traditional dhurrie rug from India features colorful stripes alternating with alabaster panels, decorated with geometric patterns that catch the eye. Great as a welcome mat or for livening up any space, the rug is diligently woven of wool on the hand loom by local artisans through a process that takes up to five days to complete. Sonik Sethi presents this superlative accent rug, completed at the ends with tiny fringes.

This preppy twist on classic plaid skirt will look fantastic with lady-like heels and even cooler with a pair of grungy combat boots. Cristina Villalobos designs it in a maxi length with a side slit in a pink, light blue, and navy plaid pattern. Pair it with a simple tank top for summer or a warm turtleneck sweater and tights for winter. The cool cotton blend knit makes it a great pick for travel.

Cristina's work draws inspiration from traditional Peruvian techniques and materials, contemporary styles, and retro glamour. She is currently juggling working as a designer with finishing school and raising her son.

Shimmering strands of yellow rayon are skillfully worked across green and black threads in this superlative kente cloth scarf. An extremely intricate double weave, its pattern is created primarily on the weft, or horizontal threads of the loom. Great care must be taken so that the blocks of color have same size and match one another when the woven strips are joined. A special stick is used to measure the cloth on the loom so Gobah Tengey-Seddoh names this design Atikpui (measure).

Each strip requires considerable effort, and the looms are worked with both hands and feet. Strips are generally three to four inches wide and seven to ten feet long, and the length of time it takes to complete one strip varies by the complexity of the chosen pattern. The simplest use mostly vertical, or warp patterns, and an experienced weaver can make several of those in one day. But patterns with nearly all weft patterns, where the warp design is hardly visible, can take up to four days to complete an individual strip. Each color has its own meanings in Asante culture. Green is fertility and new harvest, gold is royalty, black is strength, aging, and spirituality, while white is purity. The patterns themselves are carefully chosen symbols, which a master weaver develops and names, often to honor people, historical events, or proverbs.

Dry clean only.