Our love of India-based brand, KARDO, has been pretty well documented at this point.
For this reason, we won’t go into a massive spiel about why we love them – we’ll only do a small one…
We love them because no one is really doing it quite like them – their bespoke, ornate & handcrafted garments truly embody the spirit and culture of their homeland, whilst also looking bang on.
Their AW24 campaign, titled, ‘Connect’ was jam-packed full of KARDO doing exactly those things expertly well, and perhaps, even better than they have in the past.
Everything from the collection is spot on, but there was one type of item in particular that held our gaze for longer than the others…
Their Barmer Jackets.
If you’re not aware of what a Barmer Jacket is, we’ll enlighten you – it’s a traditional garment from the Barmer region in Rajasthan, India. The characteristics of a quality Barmer is the use of rich fabrics, embroidered details and vibrant threads.
Going by this metric, the Barmer jackets produced by KARDO for AW24 aren’t just quality, they’re top quality – if they were a type of Yorkshire tea, they’d be Yorkshire gold.
The two Barmer jackets that caught our eye, in particular, are the Leroy & Bodhi Jacket, with both being produced by the time-honoured craft of PATTA weaving, practised by the Meghwal community.
The Leroy Jacket is composed of woven purple, black and orange fabrics made on a pit-loom in a blend of cotton and merino wool that strikingly demonstrates the exquisite craftsmanship of the region. Functional design cues can be seen in the two large handwarmer pockets and two-way zip that runs up the entirety of the collared jacket.
The Bodhi Jacket has been handcrafted from the same blend of cotton and merino wool, but this time in hues of green, red, cream, orange and purple. It’s definitely a striking number, and we take our hats off to anyone who manages to pull it off. Instead of a zip, the Bodhi Jacket uses a button-up closure system, and also gains an extra chest pocket as opposed to the Leroy Jacket.
KARDO also let you know the names of the individuals who have handwoven both garments – Khemaram, Dinesh, Shankar Ram and Kheta Ram of Glocal Weaves – which we think is a nice touch, and if they ever read this, we’d like to say you’ve all done a fantastic job.
To shop KARDO’s AW24 collection, do so here.
