Ibulliance: Irresistible Force
It was in Istanbul, one evening over cups of apple tea, that I fell for an antique ikat coat, a striking design down the the spine looking like a column of light, and color winging out from it in prisms of song. I bought it, had it stitched onto linen and stretched—and hung it over my piano where it still brings endless happiness. Just looking at it makes me stand straighter, imagining that light running down my back.
When I went to Uzbekistan to learn how magical ikat is made (there called abr, after the Persian word for cloud) the thing that struck me most profoundly—even more than the room of silk worms munching through mulberry leaves, the extraction of the cocoon's spun thread, the colorful looms for weaving—more than all of that—was the bold process that they call the resist.
But if you want a second color in your design, you'll then tie off all of the red areas so that you can immerse it in a blue vat and the colors stay clear. Same with a third color, a fourth, a fifth, or more. Each time, the clarity of the design depends on the resist of dye.
So, when I see from our artisan partners in Uzbekistan, our new Love Is The Bomb Jacket (do we really have to call it a bomber?), I see days of intricate resist in the fabric. And yet, it's irresistible.
I think of these forces as I walk through my day. When I read the news and feel like sinking, I wrap myself around my hope, I resist despair.
When I resist texts bannering across my phone and stay focused on the person I'm talking to; when I resist worrying about tomorrow's uncertainties and stay focused on today's tasks; when I resist the snooze button and swing my feet to the floor… I am creating clear open space for something else to come in. When I resist a trend, a tidal wave of public opinion, a mob mentality, or any form of sameness, I stand taller. I breathe deeper. I let light run down my spine.
All the Best,
SHW
