“Wanderlust” was almost right.
As we were thinking of a name for our Winter 2019 collection, we kept coming back to Wanderlust. It felt like a fit in some ways. The textiles are from different far-flung places, with one from Mali, another from Myanmar, and the rest sourced from parts of Thailand. The ideas of wandering and traveling are ones we gravitate to, and your home can be a collection of precious things from the places you’ve visited. There’s a nomadic feeling to that idea, and the fabrics fit that vibe.
But.
You don’t have to actually be a globetrotter to want a collection of precious things. You don’t have to lust after the idea of travel, convinced that the only way your pieces can have a story is if you travel to the source and instill them with one. Our pillows come to you packed with stories: of the sisters who tracked down the fabrics, of the cultures that they hail from, of the women who construct the final product.
Our red and black Naga pillows, for instance, are made from Naga blankets, which are hand-loomed in Myanmar and then finished with traditional pink and black handweaving. That textile ended up halfway around the world in the hands of Don, who came to Chicago as a refugee from Myanmar and sewed most of the collection. We loved the finished result but ended up much more moved by her reaction: she told us how much she loved her job, and that she wanted to show photos of the collection to her family. That we’re providing work that feels meaningful to her is what EVERAND is all about. It’s changing her story. And the next story the collection takes on is yours.
The more we thought about it, the more Wanderlove felt right. It’s a collection of black and white and grey pieces with pops of color that work just right together, that capture a global spirit and sense of collaboration—the idea that there’s more that unites us than divides us.
As we’re building our collections, we build a mood board as well, and we plan to share those with you. It’s our storytelling mechanism, something that goes deeper than just the pillows: a collection of photos that sum up our vision and our inspiration. Here’s what we think about when we think about Wanderlove:
Photo Credits (clockwise from left): Amber Interiors | Free People | @jennasuedesign | The Citizenry | Michelle Lu Pottery | Hammerpress | Getty Images | stokpic
Red and pink exude love, energy, and excitement. There’s an emotional charge to them. But pink and red aren’t colors that you might automatically think to put in your home, making Wanderlove a little unexpected. When we started playing with the fabric—pairing the colors with strong black and white basics to ground it—we thought it looked awesome, especially against a neutral background like a white bed or grey couch. And we realized the foundation of the collection is surprisingly versatile: it’s easy to edit your look by subbing out the pink and red for a different color, and we anticipate updating the Wanderlove collection by bringing in other colors in the future.