A CREATOR, NOURISHED BY ART AND TRAVEL

 Roshanara, creator of the eponymous brand, born under the sign of travel and encounters, followed the thread of her intuitions, but everything was perhaps already there for the one who grew up with a Pakistani diplomat father and a mother Belgian-Latvian textile artist.

 Through her father's posts, she discovered the richness of the souks and the beauty of the desert in Egypt, naive art in Yugoslavia, the rich artisanal heritage of Lebanon, the beginnings of Street Art in New York... And always and everywhere, the fabrics her mother collected and hand-dyed to create patchwork textile landscapes.

In 1998, during a first stay in Pakistan, Roshanara made a new discovery: the creative and unsuspected wealth of the artisans of this little-known country, at the confluence of its neighboring countries: India, China, Afghanistan and Iran. For the woman whose first name means source of light, it was unthinkable to leave these discoveries in the shadows.

One year later, the ROSHANARA Paris brand was launched.

A BRAND

Associated with a small family workshop in Pakistan, ROSHANARA Paris transforms wool, cotton, moiré velvet or silk organza into luxurious stoles, scarves and shawls. Collections of hand-embroidered bohemian-chic pareos and caftans will quickly be added.

A trip to Jaipur, India, led to a second partnership with a family traditional textile printing workshop, expert in “screen print” and “block print”. The workshop creates fabrics with exclusive and poetic patterns for the brand, now featured in its ready-to-wear collections in cotton voile, cotton velvet, wool, linen and silk.

Success was achieved at the Who's Next and Première Classe trade shows in Paris and at the Pure trade show in London, for these “fabrics in the colors of the times” and orders from prestigious brands poured in: Le Bon Marché, Le Printemps, Franck & Son, Fenwick, Jigsaw, Club Med, Calypso Saint Barth, Heidi Klein

… A COMMITMENT…

More than 20 years after the launch of its brand, ROSHANARA Paris still collaborates with the two workshops from its beginnings, which have become unconditional partners and friends. Thanks to its lasting relationships, the brand participates in the preservation of these small family workshops that create jobs that are always paid at a fair price, but also in the preservation of an artisanal heritage.

Also, embroidery units established in a rural region of Pakistan offer women working in the fields the possibility of one-off employment, a source of additional income for them and their families, and in particular making it possible to send girls to school.

A commitment to which the designer is particularly keen. the creator of the brand.

… AN APPROACH…

 Sensitive to the environmental impact of fashion, ROSHANARA Paris is committed to reasoned creation, freed from notions of seasonality. The brand thus offers a second life to the stock of its previous collections and reworks them according to the inspiration of the moment. To encourage upcycling , items are packaged in fabric scraps from the collections.

Favoring what already exists before initiating new productions makes it possible to reduce the environmental impact by offering capsule collections in small series.

ROSHANARA Paris thus reconnects with the luxury of rarity and invites us to surround ourselves with lovingly chosen items, made with respect for artisans and the planet.

…IN THE BEGINNING WERE FABRICS…

Whether woven, dyed, printed or hand embroidered, fabrics have defined the ROSHANARA Paris fashion and home collections since its beginnings and have become its signature.

Thanks to the passion and talent of the artisans, each piece tells us the story of a patient and skillful gesture inherited from generation to generation: weaving, dyeing, block-printing, screen-printing, embroidery...

Thus, on each pareo, a Sheesha embroidery, where the artisan embroiders fragments of mirrors on the fabric, requires 15 hours of work. It takes 30 hours for the Kaseehda technique from Kashmir where the artisan uses thick threads and inlays of natural stones or mirrors to create organic patterns.

For the silk organza stoles in moiré tones, the threads are first dyed by hand for 2 to 3 days, then woven on traditional looms. The artisan weaves around 5 to 6 meters per day.

The plain items are dyed individually and give each one an aged appearance with a trendy vintage spirit, while it is with traditional block-print or screen-print techniques that the artisans create the exclusive textile patterns of the brand.

Why do we continue to work with India and Pakistan?

- Out of loyalty to the two family workshops with which we launched the brand,

- To help preserve and promote rich local craftsmanship,

- To promote the development of rural communities and the empowerment of women by offering them fair remuneration which allows them to send their daughters to school.

- Because we believe in an open world where cultures enrich each other.