Designer Spotlight: Keok-jay
Worldly Must-haves in Philanthropic Fashion
Take a second to ask yourself: How often do you find a clothing line whose thoughtful aesthetic rivals its exceptional social cause? For Keok-jay, the Cambodia-based enterprise that employs local HIV-positive women to craft recycled t-shirts, skirts, bags, and other goodies, it’s what they’re all about.
“Doing this project, I’ve been able to fuse my central passions for social justice and wearable art in a way that is meaningful to me, and hopefully to others as well,” says founder and designer Rachel Faller. Hopefully others? Quite an understatement coming from the woman who created a company that allows single HIV-positive women to earn a living in the safety of their own homes in a struggling Cambodia.
“I have a very close relationship with all of my staff and this business is really about and for them,” Faller explains. Among the more obvious financial benefits, stable employment allows many of these women to send their children to school and avoid ostracism from the community. Eventually, the enterprise will be secure enough for Faller to leave the women in charge of their own company, further stabilizing the local economy.
In the meantime, however, Faller is busy training new artisans and scouting out ideas for new collections. “We don’t use traditional motifs which are overplayed in handicraft designs here, such as religious icons, temples, palm trees, elephants, etc. Instead, each collection is inspired by an aspect of Cambodian life today.”
Indeed, the collections are well thought out. One collection, inspired by the Cambodian marketplace, features women’s t-shirts with unexpected prints of bike wheels, fish, umbrellas, and even rats. Another was inspired by the “crumbling French colonial architecture and the new Cambodia that is emerging.” After all, “keok-jay” is the Khmer word signifying something that is “green, new, and natural.”
As if it couldn’t get any better, all items in the Keok-jay line are made sustainably from local materials such as bed sheets or old men’s shirts found in the markets of Phnom Penh. The fabrics are then dyed and printed using all natural dyes made from native plants in the area. The result is comfortable, casual, machine-washable treats in the forms of asymmetrical, flowing skirts, vibrant dresses in cool vintage prints, and countless unique accessories.
“Everything is meant to be very wearable here in Cambodia or elsewhere, is machine washable, comfortable, and will last a long time, but still have an artistic edge to it,” Faller explains.
With the increasing popularity of socially and environmentally friendly fashion companies, Keok-jay is right on target, and is not to be missed! Available for order online at Keokjay.org.
Written by: Lindsay Wilson
