Introducing Chame

Blue Nude ~ Slow Fashion Brand - The Nepalese Himalayas

 

Chame is our creative ode to the Nepalese Himalayas. The collection is inspired by our Creative Director's time in Nepal, a five-week journey through its valleys, villages, and mountains.

From jungle valleys to some of the highest mountains in the world, Nepal is varied in landscape and colour, though united in an attitude of kindness and respect. Its peoples' spiritual connection to their land is balanced with their openness to sharing their culture with welcome arms to outsiders.

The Annapurna Circuit, undertaken by our Creative Director, is a journey in varied climate and colour. In the lower jungles leading into the Manang District, yellow fields of rice, green palms, and drying red chilli saturate the area with colour. Moving higher in altitude, pine forests and blue glacial lakes begin to appear. Above the tree line, the environment is too extreme for trees to grow. Orange and red shrubs mix with dry yellow grasses, covering the region's colossal mountains. Summiting Thorong La pass at 5,416 metres above sea level, one is surrounded by pure white snow. Descending into the Lower Mustang region, the snowy mountains turn into twisted peaks of dust and rock, contrasted with colourful temples across the land. The circuit ends in Pokhara, the Nepali version of paradise. Pokhara means 'pond', and this colourful city situated on a lake's edge certainly feels like a dream after the long, isolated journey. However, in the distance are the peaks of the Manaslu, Annapurna II, and Dhaulagiri mountains, a reminder of the physical feat that was just accomplished.

The Annapurna Circuit is not just a trek - its a pilgrimage to the ceiling of the earth, a worship of the planet's natural wonders. It's this feeling of 'man and nature' that we wanted to communicate in our collection. It represents the movement away from 'man vs. nature', which we see as an archaic form of man's relationship to the earth. The Nepali people do not view the natural world as something to conquer, but rather a living entity to respect and work with.

For the collection's artwork, we teamed up with Mexico City-based painter James Watkins for the collection's prints. James' abstract expressionist paintings are of an earthly nature - he too uses the natural work as a primary influence in his art. His large canvases typically feature organic shapes overlaid on explosions of soft colour-blocking.

For our collaborative pieces, James photographed small sections of his canvases, which were then printed onto large panels of fabric. The close-up detail of the brushstrokes give a soft-focus to the pieces, with the texture of the canvas providing a further painterly feel. They are abstract and adventurous, emitting an organic aura.

The collection's colours are a balance between the colourful greens of Nepal's lower valley jungles, the muted oranges and reds above the tree line, and the majestic white peaks of the Himalayas. 

The collection represents the complementary yin and yang of life - sorrow and healing, adventure and peace, man and nature - which is prevalent in Nepali culture. 

The pieces are at once adventurous and peaceful - just like Nepal. We hope the clothes and their new owners undertake adventures of their own, one foot forward at a time.

 

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks". ~ John Muir

 

Blue Nude ~ Slow Fashion Brand - Nepalese Himalayas

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