
Hand-Beaded Iris Clutch from Haiti
Delicate Orchid Jewelry from Colombia
Did you know an orchid can live 100 years?! (No one told mine, who grace my kitchen for a few fleeting weeks, max.) And this - orchids are 100 million year old, collectively speaking; fossils spill that secret. I had no idea.
What I did know is that deep in the three mountains ranges of Colombia, hundreds of varieties run wild and free.
To Gather Together
Why Not Be Turned Into Fire?
On The Road: India
On The Road with Ibu
Leather Chain Mail from Colombia
Hand-woven Alpaca from Peru
Seven Years with Jamie
The Madina Coat
First Executive Director of Ibu Foundation
Leather Craftsmanship from Colombia
A Modern Refreshed Kantha Stitch
Indigo Prints from El Salvador
Silk Traditions from Bangladesh
Isa Catto- Artist and Friend
Hand-Woven Caftans from India
Hand Loomed Cotton Washed in the Black Sea
Here in Sile, a women's community honors a 150-year-old craft tradition,
hand-looming organic cotton, washing it in the saline water of the Black Sea, and spreading out their cloth to dry on the quartz sands of their beach.
A New Block Printing From India
Macrame from Colombia
I walk into the design studio of Carolina Vélez in Medellín, Colombia. . . totally unprepared for the jaw dropping that is to come.
Kantha Stitching from Bangladesh
Woven Bags Made by Syrian Refugees
Gold Flora Jewelry
Her lover gave her a splendid orchid blossom. It splurged; it faded. Still cherishing, she tucked it in a drawer. A month later, forgetting, she opened and found the blossom still there - dried but alive with memory. A jeweler, she dreamt of turning it into gold. She consulted teachers, experts; no one could tell her how to perform this alchemy. So she set out - by trying and trying again - to find her own way.
Hand Painted Dress from India
Susan's Trip to Medellin, Colombia
Hand Embroidered Cocktail Napkins from Rwanda
Handwoven Ikat from Uzbekistan
Beading by the Maasai Tribe in Kenya
Indigo Dyes in El Salvador
Traditional Felting in Kyrgyzstan
Embroiderers in Pakistan
Iris Apfel Supports Ibu's Mission
Introducing the Ibu Foundation
I'm sitting down with Chantha Nguon to discuss designs for our World Dress collection, having admired for years her work with luscious silk. Chantha is a strong, petite woman with a handsome face and eyes that hold a harrowing history. Born in culturally rich Cambodia, Chantha escaped the Khmer Rouge regime when she was nine, living in war-torn Saigon and later for 10 years without family in a Thai refugee camp. When she at last returned to her home in Cambodia, the culture had been extinguished; the women in her village knew nothing of their heritage, nor of hope.
A Look Ahead to our March 8th Fashion Show
Meet the Faces of Ibu
Each week, I celebrate here women of uncommon strength; artisans crafting a new world; Ibu on the move. But there is another kind of Ibu in this movement: women of influence and accomplishment among us who are reaching out to elevate women worldwide.