The Beautiful History Of Vintage Kantha
You may have noticed that over the weekend, we were incredibly pleased to release our brand new range of gorgeous vintage reworked kantha bags - from totes, to hold-all's, to shoppers.
The reason this drop was so exciting to all of us here at All About Audrey, is because of the deeply special and precious roots behind the kantha fabric itself.
If you are at all interested in fashion and textiles (I would have to assume you are if you are reading this), then you’ve most likely heard the term ‘kantha’ pop up from time to time, and may even be able to picture the particular fabric in your head.
But what exactly is ‘kantha’? What exactly makes the material so steeped in centuries of history?
Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘kontha’, meaning ‘rags’, kantha is the ultimate form of upcycling old, left-over materials to craft something entirely new and unique to the individual making it.
The tradition dates back over 1000 years to the pre-vedic times, and was born in the rural villages of Bengal.
Commonly, the women of each household would take old rags of clothing or cloth, or of anything really, and layer them together using an easily recognisable simple running stitch in order to create thick, soft patchwork quilts and rugs for their loved ones.
Babies would be coddled using them, they would be given as gifts, or made for decoration in the form of intricately designed rugs or tapestries for homes, visually displaying stories or ancient Indian folklore.
As they were such a common practice across households in villages, they became a large source of creative expression for women across India, and would thus be utterly unique to each family. There were simply no rules to making kantha; it was a way to decrease waste and create beautiful pieces with as a little spending as possible.
On occasion, the pieces of kantha would even document family history; designs would be carried across generations, as they would be started by the mother, and continued on by the daughter, and so on, eventually creating expansive magnificent tapestries of artistic feminine expression.
Bangladeshi scholar, Niaz Zaman, wrote in her book, "one reason a new-born was swaddled in a kantha made of old clothes was [the family's] fear about the child surviving in an age where child mortality was high, and buying new clothes meant hoping for a future that they were scared to think of".
It truly is incredible that we can date these examples of upcycling and sustainability back to over a thousand years ago, and it is utterly inspiring for the future of fashion.
In our new collection of bags, not only have we used kantha, but genuinely authentic vintage kantha, which is incredibly hard to come by nowadays, that Audrey luckily came across in her recent trip in person to India.
This means that each and every bag we have listed on our site and in our store contains unfathomable layers of deep rooted history, love and care.
It also means that in purchasing one of the bags, and using it as one of your daily accessories (something that multiple of our team members are already highly enjoying doing), you are actively participating in a greener future of fashion.
We can't wait to see how you continue to add your own stories, history and love to them!
Lots of love,
All About Audrey xx
External images sourced from thebetterindia.com and bbc.co.uk
