With summer holidays being just around the corner, Jac + Jack design duo Jac Hunt and Patrick Blue have worked with Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy from Dinosaur Designs to create a limited series of three brightly coloured, organic cotton towels.

Inspired by Dinosaur Design’s latest collection, Modern Tribal, the collaborative project celebrates the skills of artisans working in India, utilising their traditional methods of weaving and dyeing.

Each towel takes three days to make. First they are hand loomed by weavers living in West Bengal villages around Fulia and Murshidabad. The towels are then sent to Bhadli, a town in the district of Nakhatrana of Kachchh, where they are hand-dyed by brothers Aziz and Suleman Khatri, the latest generation to ply their trade in a long line of Bandhani craftsmen.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

Hunt, who has lived in India, visited the Khatri brothers ahead of the project to canvas the possibility of transferring the unique circular designs and bold colours of Dinosaur Designs’ Modern Tribal collection to premium quality towels.

The results are Lagoon, Rising and The Kiss, a set of towels featuring bold designs and a bohemian feel. The towels’ delicate bleeding of colour owes to the Khatri’s brothers use of the Bandhani method, a type of tie dying. The nature of the hand-dyeing process means that each piece is subtly different from the next.

It isn’t the first time that Jac + Jack have sought the traditional expertise of Indian artisans. Since 2009 the label has worked with a group of artisans living in the village of Chandroti, in the Himalayan foothills, to produce handmade knitted accessories.

Both labels have a long history in the design game. Dinosaur Designs has been creating its signature resin jewellery and homewares since the 1980s, while Jac + Jack have been producing luxe knitwear since 2004.

The limited series towels, designed to be lightweight, and less likely than a conventional beach towel to catch sand, mark the first time the brands have worked together.

Ormandy says he and his partner Olsen are excited about their collaboration with Jac + Jack. “It’s been such a fun and rewarding process. Plus, I’m a bit of a surfer so these will definitely come in handy.”

These extremely limited blankets are available in-store at Dinosaur Designs and Jac + Jack, plus online at Dinosaur Designs.

jacandjack.com
dinosaurdesigns.com