رنگینه
RANGINA
Full of Colour
Rangina — the feminine of rangeen, colourful. Named the way an Afghan grandmother names things: by the joy of them.
Peshawar · Kandahar · One size · Made to order
Peshawar · Kandahar
By commission — £1,850
Made to order · one size · six to eight weeks
A black bodice worked in multicoloured geometric diamonds and small round mirrors sits above wide mirror-and-coin belt rows at the waist.
The skirt is true patchwork — large diagonal blocks of red, navy, green and magenta, each covered in gold floral embroidery and white star mirror-flowers — falling to a band of geometric embroidery above a deep maroon velvet border worked in silver zardozi crowns and jewel medallions.
Sheer organza balloon sleeves in soft peach and mint lift the whole thing, finished with deep maroon embroidered velvet cuffs.
We take on a small number of commissions each season. A member of the atelier will write to you personally.
- Hand-cut patchwork skirt
- Mirror work and gold floral embroidery
- Maroon velvet hem with silver zardozi
- Pastel organza sleeves
- Fully lined
Peshawar · Kandahar
By commission — £1,850
Made to order · one size · six to eight weeks
A black bodice worked in multicoloured geometric diamonds and small round mirrors sits above wide mirror-and-coin belt rows at the waist.
The skirt is true patchwork — large diagonal blocks of red, navy, green and magenta, each covered in gold floral embroidery and white star mirror-flowers — falling to a band of geometric embroidery above a deep maroon velvet border worked in silver zardozi crowns and jewel medallions.
Sheer organza balloon sleeves in soft peach and mint lift the whole thing, finished with deep maroon embroidered velvet cuffs.
We take on a small number of commissions each season. A member of the atelier will write to you personally.
- Hand-cut patchwork skirt
- Mirror work and gold floral embroidery
- Maroon velvet hem with silver zardozi
- Pastel organza sleeves
- Fully lined
I · The Name
رنگینه — پُررنګه
Where the name comes from
Patchwork is not a shortage. In the villages of Kandahar and the workshops of Peshawar, it is the oldest way of speaking: a piece of a sister's wedding cloth here, a length dyed at the same well there, all pulled into a single skirt so no story is lost.
Rangina keeps that grammar. Every block was a whole cloth before it was a panel; every panel is a memory of it.
ژوند په رنګونو کې دی
Jhwand pa rangoono ke dai —
"Life is in the colours of it."
— Rahman Baba, Peshawar
II · The Cloth
How it is made
A black bodice worked in multicoloured geometric diamonds and small round mirrors sits above wide mirror-and-coin belt rows at the waist.
The skirt is true patchwork — large diagonal blocks of red, navy, green and magenta, each covered in gold floral embroidery and white star mirror-flowers — falling to a band of geometric embroidery above a deep maroon velvet border worked in silver zardozi crowns and jewel medallions.
Sheer organza balloon sleeves in soft peach and mint lift the whole thing, finished with deep maroon embroidered velvet cuffs.
III · The Wearing
One size, cut in the Afghan way
Cut one size, gathered at the waist by the mirror belt. The panels are drafted to fall diagonally, so the movement is always doing half of the wearing for you.
Written for the twirl in a garden, and the sit-down that follows it.
Every Gulālai dress is one size. It is the older tradition — the fit is found in the sash, the fall of the sleeve, the shoulder line. The garment answers to the body, not the other way round.
Turn the page
