“My textiles flourish from my personal experiences and interactions with different cultures and places all over the world. Diversity and variety inspire my exploration of colour, texture and materials.”
Mhairi Boyle collaborated with CHACCRA in 2019 to design the Wild Luxury Collection, a series of yak fibre blankets inspired by Nepal’s raw and powerful natural world and the resilience of the people that call it home.
Mhairi is an up and coming explorative textile designer who is deeply influenced by her experiences growing up in a family that traveled and lived all over the world. Her childhood was spent across Bahrain, Scotland and England, where she experienced the dramatic contrasts between the textile heritage of the UK and the cultural melting pots of the Middle-East. Initially taken by oil on canvas, Mhairi transitioned to textiles during her time at Bournemouth University in the UK, where her personal experiences of different cultures and textiles shaped her practice. In 2018 Mhairi was nominated for The Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID) Student Business Award in the textiles category, for a series of work that investigated the aesthetics of Scottish landscapes with hand and machine stitch and dye work. Since then, she has carved out a career in Bahrain, working with local communities to help to develop the country’s weaving industry.
The Wild Luxury Collectionis a multifaceted design interpretation of the relationship between the Nepalese people and nature. Crafted from Himalayan yak fibres using a variety of Nepalese weaving techniques, the Collection is an amalgamation of textures that communicate a variety of metaphors and directions.
The Jaṅgalī Blanket is wholly representative of the dramatic and diverse nature of Nepalese landscapes. By combining a unique collection of weaving methods, Jaṅgalī plays with the traditions of Nepalese textiles through diverse weave structures and textures that are atypical of traditional Nepalese textiles.
The Prakāśa Blanket is an extrospective observation of the chaos of Nepalese nature and the ability of communities to harmonise with it. Through a dispersal of tactile and adventurous textures, Prakāśa represents the transition from dark to light and is inspired by the journeys and strength of those who continue forward in the face of adversity.
The versatile nature of yak fibres is at the core of the development of the Wild Luxury Collection. Mhairi wanted to create a collection that was holistically representative of both the humanistic traditions of Nepalese craft and the natural qualities of Himalayan fibres. Each design comes in two colour ranges including; the natural browns and whites of yak and wool for Jaṅgalī, and undyed and black for Prakāśa - with new designs coming soon. The Himalayas are home to both wild and domestic yak who thrive in the harsh environments of the mountain range, and the Wild Luxury Collection pays homage to the links between such life and the impacts of nature and all its imperfections.
See the Wild Luxury Collection.
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