After much anticipation, unique lifestyle brand Mochi has launched it’s international e-commerce website, bringing it’s vivacious charm straight to your doorstep at the touch of a button.
Palestinian designer Ayah Tabari, who was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, raised in Amman and studied in London before settling in Dubai, founded the eclectic label three years ago. Ayah was inspired to launch her collections after a trip to Goa back in 2011, where she was intrigued by the colourful and embroidered fabrics famous in South Asia. Fascinated by different cultures and eccentric traditional fabrics, Ayah decided to put her eye for playful details into a clothing line and set her sights on the fashion industry.
Ayah’s unique designs were an instant hit, with top stores including Valleydez and S*uce stocking Mochi products. But with the demand for her creations increasing, the fashionista decided to finally launch an e-commerce site, allthingsmochi.com.
The name Mochi comes from the region of Gujarat, a state in Western India. The Mochis were originally cobblers by trade who later developed the art of embroidery in fine stitching. This brand’s USP is its reflection of different cultures. For each collection Ayah travels to different destinations and designs a line that pays homage to aspects of their culture, carefully picking fabrics to be handcrafted by local artisans, encouraging the talent from the community.
Ancient embroidery textiles and craftsmanship make up the Jaipur, Thailand and Hungary collections, which showcase an effortless merging of Eastern and Western sensibilities through modern trend silhouettes. Taking inspiration from runway looks, adventures and travels, Ayah also creates simple silhouettes that will take you from day to night, reviving embroidery in a way that is cool, easy to wear and oozes the season’s trends.
The Thailand collection is inspired and crafted in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand where the Hmong tribe live. The Hmong women are known for stitching decorative patterns on fabrics and each piece in the collection symbolises ancient hidden scripts. The one-of-a-kind pieces include embroidered headbands in floral patchwork and geometric stripes, swirl printed jackets and playful crop tops. The Hungary collection is comprised of 3D floral clutch bags taking inspiration from Kalocsa in South Budapest where artisans are known for their needlework on white fabric. The Jaipur collection features mirrored and embroidered tops, floral printed maxi skirts and hand-embroidered pom pom bags handcrafted by local artisans in Rajasthan, India using antique textiles from their cultural heritage.
Here are EW’s top five picks:
Crossover bag Dhs320
Mirrored skirt Dhs975
Hand embroidered jacket Dhs880
Flower embellished clutch Dhs350
Backless dress Dhs700
Stay tribal chic in the most covet worthy trans-cultural fashion by visiting allthingsmochi.com
