House of Wandering Silk - New Delhi

I can't tell you the story of HOWS without telling you my story - they're essentially one and the same. So here goes...

I was born in Australia but consider myself rootless & feel at home anywhere in the world. Following six years of living full time in Delhi, I I currently split my time between Berlin, Ithaka island in Greece & Delhi, where Maria & Reena manage all our daily operations. When I'm not deep into HOWS work, I'm likely to be off traveling somewhere - or daydreaming about distant lands.

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The Beginnings

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Despite building a fashion brand, I have to admit that fashion has only ever really been on the periphery of my interests. In High School back in Aus, I shortly dreamt of becoming a fashion designer (as one does). I took a few illustration courses & did my work experience at a well known Aussie fashion brand.

But life took an unexpected turn when I moved to Japan at age 18. I lived in Osaka & just outside Tokyo for over five years, completing an undergrad degree in International Relations. This time, spent with international students from around the world & solo traveling all over Asia during holidays, was a real eye opener for me.

I left Japan in 2004 with a strong desire to work in International Development. I interviewed, unsuccessfully, with Safia Minney; fair trade pioneer & founder of the incredible organisation, People Tree. That meeting was the kernel that lodged somewhere in my brain, slowly growing over the following years into what would become a compulsion to build my own fair trade company. 

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I moved to London and interned with a range of organisations like Human Rights Watch & Oxfam, trying to get my foot in the door. I was thrilled when, six months later, I got an offer to work with an International NGO in Afghanistan. I gave up my tiny, shared-apartment in grey & wet Clapham South for sun-soaked, chaotic & other-worldly Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of country. 

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That was the beginning of almost a decade working in the Humanitarian Sector, spending years living in Pakistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Vietnam & Kyrgyzstan, chasing conflict, floods, typhoons & earthquakes.

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