Back in 2015 we were living in Jakarta, a mega city, and really needed to escape for a while to a place with abundance of wide open spaces, lots of virgin nature and few people. Mongolia offered all that and more.
We visited the country for one entire month with little less than our Nikon camera and a backpack. On this trip, we lived with the nomads, learnt about their unique lifestyle and felt in love with their traditional clothes. This was the start of our huge love affair with Mongolia and the Mongolian-inspired silks.
Below we’ve listed the reason why Mongolian silks play such a big roll in our Liebre style collections.
Unexpected Colors and Patterns
The silks we use in our Liebre designs have been personally collected by us in our travels to Mongolia. It never ceases to amaze us how many thousands of colours and patterns can actually be created and it’s a true challenge to chose only a few.
Using Mongolian silks in our Liebre designs is a pleasure for us because these materials, with their many colours and patterns, bring us always out of our comfort zones and push us to create unseen and unique shoes and bag designs.
No Product
Traditions
A deel is the centre piece of the Mongolian traditional clothing. This is where all the magic happens. In a normal day, the deel has a very down to earth and pragmatic design, with few but beautiful details.
However, this same garment goes into a completely different level during the Naadam celebrations. Dozens of colours and patterns are then mixed with an unexpected balance . Accessories are also added to the look. When complete, the outfit is a true piece of art.
No Product
Nomads
Huge wide open prairies, massive skies, silence and a cosy yurt. That is the nomadic lifestyle in it’s pure form. We had the chance to live with a nomadic family and support them with their live stock. Never have we felt such an inner peace as back then.
Everytime we go back to Mongolia to source for new silks we always try to escape the city of Ulaanbaatar to experience the nomadic lifestyle again. This is what keeps us coming back – and the silks!
No Product
The Selection
When we travel to Mongolia, we go with our backpacks. This is how we like to travel. The problem is that there is only room for a limited amount of silk pieces in our bags. This pushes us to be extremely conscious about what we are bringing back.
Selecting silks is a task of many days. It’s very easy to get excited on the fist day. There is literally thousands, when not millions, of options and you want to get them all. We like to talk to the vendors and customers and ask them what’s their favourite. We always leave Mongolia ecstatic thinking of the amazing designs that will come out of these silks.