Find gorgeous handmade scarves at Kalabandar’s private sale
With fans of every age and in every social sphere, the scarf is one trend that shows no sign of wavering. Some of the most beautiful we’ve seen are from Toronto’s Jan Becker and Jeffrey Hess, who will host their semi-private sale at their home this week.
The married couple, who met in a textile shop in Jaipur, sell hand-woven silk, cotton and wool scarves, shawls and stoles found on an annual four-month pilgrimage to Thailand, India and Laos. The artistic duo—she’s a photographer; he’s a historian who has curated an exhibit on antique textiles—commission the pieces directly from worker-owned weaving co-ops.
The couple sell textiles under the name Kalabandar at Blue Banana in Kensington Market, but their finest designs are available only at their Victorian home, near Queen and Spadina. A silk scarf from Laos, intricately patterned with taupe and black triangles, takes six weeks to weave and costs $249. Most, however, are between $50 and $130, and one of our favourites, a brightly hued wool scarf made in India, is $44.
Shopping in the couple’s front room is an intimate affair. Racks of scarves hang near fireplaces, and piano music plays softly as customers who have just met vote on which piece looks best on each other. Hess and Becker will explain the origin of each and may include a lesson on how a jacquard loom works. “Customers walk away with a sense of the history of the piece,” Hess says. “It makes it much more personal.”
For an invitation to Kalabandar’s home sale, which runs Thursday, November 12, to Monday, November 16, e-mail tribalfibers@yahoo.com or call 416-979-2206.
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