Ostrakon comes named after the broken shells of pottery that were found carved with messages, by archeologists during excavations of Ancient Greek sites. Ostrakon, as a lehenga, or traditional Indian skirt, is cut in the Indian classical style, with a richly embroidered velvet base that draws upon emblematic motifs taken from moments throughout the basra tapestry - the cage structure, botanical etchings taken from Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, flowers from the Oxburgh hangings etc. Each motif is carved into the velvet, looking almost like the original Ostrakons, using delicate embroidery of a mix of copper-shaded metallic threads and ivory silk threads.
 
The beauty of Ostrakon lies within its delicate layering, where alternate panels of the skirt have an additional layer of pale blue organza attached atop the velvet, adding an elemental depth and almost-ethereal element to the piece. The lattice of delicate threadwork is continued upon this. Floral, meandering, and almost cartographic in its detail, the sketchbook-style placement of the motifs are accentuated with a drizzle of hand-embroidered pearls of varying sizes, inspired by the grottos in the Pitti Palace, Florence - one of the homes of Catherine De Medici, and a palace that Botticelli himself was known to frequent.
 
It is paired with the Sagene scarf - its net-like construction references traditional textile-making techniques, invoking the act of individuals merging to form a collective structure. The design brings to mind both a cartographic and a symbolic framework—tracing the entangled identities of women’s identities within dualistic archetypes, particularly the virgin-whore dichotomy. Of memorials built of thread, Sagene becomes a memorial built of thread: a textile map of tension, where each intersection signals both solidarity and restriction. It is at once a diagram and shroud, structure and story. Sagene invites the viewer to examine how form, material, and technique can express the inherited architectures of gendered storytelling, offering up a conversation-starter on gendered narratives in a simplified, wearable format.
 
View as Seperates:
The Ostrakon Skirt,
The Sagene Scarf.
 
Colourway: Muted Cerulean. Eggshell. Copper
Fabric Composition: 
Cotton Chiffon
Viscose Velvet
100% Silk Organza
Modal Satin
 
dry clean only