Romance, Russia and billy goat fluff
International Herald Tribune - September 27 2006
Cashmere and angora are still the fashion staples in the world of luxury knits, but there is now a new rival for the fashionista's wardrobe.
Pookh, or dandelion fluff, as it translates from the Russian, is made of a cobweblike fabric that is woven from the beards of mountain goats that graze on the foothills of the Urals and is heading to the forefront of the fashion world as the signature material of the flourishing designer brand Rodnik.
Richard Ascott, 25, and Philip Colbert, 26, the creative directors at Rodnik, were not discouraged by the challenge of being newcomers when they introduced their label in 2003. They have been unconventional from the start. Colbert, a philosophy major, and Ascott, an art history major, were discussing what they would do after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, when Ascott saw the fabric on a friend. It struck him as beautiful and unusual.
It was Pookh. With the energy and enthusiasm of novices, they used the fabric to help revive the name Rodnik, taken from an early 20th-century Moscow shop owned by Princess Tenisheva, a patron of arts and crafts, and run until 1905. It was to be the perfect union: Pookh scarves made from the beards of Russian goats and Rodnik, the Tenisheva's Russian arts brand. [more]
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