Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Busy Beaders

SOKO has now gathered a large group of beaders to work on the beading for the ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. Our group of beaders are from the Maasai tribe (of Kenya and Tanzania) and, as one of the beaders told us, they are "born beading". Beading is traditionally done by women but throughout the years men have learnt the skill; we certainly have a large number of male beaders at SOKO.

The beads of the Maasai tribe are usually brightly coloured and elaborate pieces are produced. Beads are worn by Maasai to show status within a tribe or during a celebration, for example when the Maasai warriors (Moran) have been out in the bush for their coming of age they return to a huge celebration and are adorned with beautiful beaded pieces that the women had been making whilst waiting for their return.

The beaded pieces for the ASOS Africa collection have been specifically designed for the Autumn/Winter collection. Each piece takes one beader approximately 4 days and the aim is to make every piece identical.

Hopefully you can now see just how special these new beaded pieces for the ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter collection are!

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