CAROLE IN WONDERLAND - A DEDICATED LIFE TO TRADITIONAL WEAVING AND ARTISANS - REPORTING FROM VIENTIANE - LAOS

Time-lapse photography would be the best way to get a glimpse at Carol Cassidy’s work and understanding of the many layers she has woven between the world and Lao traditional weaving.

She’s has been part of the revival as well as the caring nurse of a fading art: the traditional silk weaving of Laos. 

For those who have had a soft spot for traditional hand-crafts, passed on for generations by men and women all over the world, understand the endearing emotion as well as curse this passion can be.

Looking at the thread of Carol’s career in Laos where she has hand-woven woven precious fabrics all these years with creativity, research and generosity, one can’t imagine how much she has contributed to perpetuating the Lao Textile tradition.

It took me all these years from the moment I stepped in her then buzzing Vientiane studio in 1993, to now, some 30 years later, walking under the same Frangipani trees, listening to the same “clack” of the 30 looms operated by talented Lao women weavers she has nurtured and cared for over the years, to start understanding how hard it is to maintain the heartbeat of any endangered tradition.

By the time I write this article and after the wave of disturbances, COVID-19 has brought to the world and retail to some extent, the urgency of preserving Hand-Made traditions arise even more vividly.

Artisans can only replicate what they have been taught. To bridge the gap between the simplicity of an artisan’s lifestyle and our western sophisticated retail market, Carol and the like are the necessary link to success.

Modernity pushing locals toward new lifestyle and opportunities, only the braves such as Carol have kept on operating these high demanding craft workshops. Luckily, Carol’s work is now largely commissioned by architects and designers for private clients and luxury houses, demanding even more quality, knowledge and creativity to satisfy their search and appreciation for this one-of-a-kind luxury products, specially designed and engineered for them. Carol is fully hands-on from thread to sampling, colour to finished product, attentive to the smallest details to deliver the excellence they expect. Private design and production workshops such as hers are already in place all over the world (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam, Guatemala, Peru etc.) catering for the finest name in the world of fashion and interior but would it be possible to design an open space platform that will directly connect designers, architects & artist with world craft and artisans?

This high work that designers and Luxury houses are looking for could be the train pulling the waggon of artisan’s workshops all over the world rather than thwarting them to grow and expand beyond their own rural borders.

Let’s all reflect on how Craft inheritance, can be saved, passed on and developed into new opportunities for luxury markets looking for exclusivity.

Beziers, May 7th 2020.

CAROLE CASSIDY / cassidy.carol@gmail.com / Mo & whats app USA / +1 301 828 8497 / Mo & whats app Lao / +856 21 212 123 / Office number Lao is + 856 21-212123 / Instagram / Lao Textiles / Facebook Lao Textiles by Carol Cassidy