intricate design

Knit using the jacquard technique from a sumptuously soft alpaca blend, this feminine ruana from Peru evokes the textiles of the ancient Inca. Edison Canal creates this black and white ruana, featuring floral and vine motifs within an intricate border. A reversible design perfectly fits any mood.

A parade of alpacas marches across the brim of this lightweight alpaca blend knit hat designed by Edison Canal of Peru. In snow white on black, the body of the hat features rows of intricate diamond motifs.

Amit Moza designs this rug to celebrate the magnificence of animals while bringing a traditional Indian craft into the modern home. The wool rug, with its beautiful zebra design, is skillfully crafted with intricate chain stitch work. The uniquely shaped creature is patterned with graphite grey and sunrise orange details that can take up to 20 days to complete by hand. The plain ivory cotton backing adds durability.

This chic cotton shawl showcases intricate hand block-printed designs that feel both modern and deeply rooted in tradition, with leaf, floral and striped square patterns. Indian duo Rajnandinee and Srabonti creates an accessory that transitions seamlessly from casual mornings to elegant evenings with just a change in how you choose to wear it.

The intricate texture in this handsome kente cloth shawl is inspired by beach pebbles. Designed by a fisherman around 1898, its name means "pebbles of the shore are hard to crack." The tiny blocks of pattern represent the thoughts of that ancestral craftsman. Handcrafted by the Gobah Tengey-Seddoh Family, this extraordinary double weave textile is one of the most difficult patterns to achieve. These expert weavers use traditional looms and a cotton blend.

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 (horizontal thread) 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.