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BY
CAROLYN FINERAN
he
Mississippi Delta and Greeley, CO, are worlds away
from China. But, through trade and travel, conviction
and courage, we can bring those worlds together.
Yet,
how do we turn our dreams into reality? Many of
us have traveled the world, falling in love with
one spot, longing to return and explore, but only
a very few of us are able to create a business that
supports those dreams.
Pat
Dalton of Denver followed her call to China in 1986
and has taken hundreds of clients - most of them
avid embroidery enthusiasts, their husbands, and
their friends - on her highly specialized textile
tours. Donna Kennedy, a creative woman with vision,
visited China in 1990, saw the timeless Chinese
crafts, and was compelled to bring them back with
her to the Western world.
Pat
Dalton:
The love of embroidery is a language spoken throughout
the world
It
is October 2003, and it is that time before dawn,
when it is still cold and dark. But, Pat Dalton
is ready.
The
long black skirt and smart vest with antique embroideries
are elegant, and because she knows that she will
go halfway around the world this morning, her carry-on
bag contains warm socks, a sleeping mask, and a
thick paperback novel. Interestingly enough, 441
pairs of reading glasses are stowed in her large
bag. She is on her way to Beijing, China, today,
leading a tour group of 15 women from the United
States, New Zealand, and England on her 21st trip
to China as president of Dalton Textile Tours.
This
tour was originally scheduled for earlier in the
year, but was postponed because of the SARS Epidemic
in Asia, and Dalton has not returned to her beloved
other country for almost a year. This time, it is
a private tour, and the travelers will go to remote
villages that are not part of regular tours.
Most
of Dalton's tour clients are very experienced in
embroidery and have studied the craft for years.
They will be taught advanced intricacies by ethnic
Miao women, who produce needlework as it has been
done for centuries.
An
expert on ethnic minority embroideries, Dalton has
followed her passion for the intricate details and
open hearts of a small group of craftswomen, and
she brings them together with sisters in threads
from the West.
Pat Dalton grew up in Greeley, CO, and discovered
the joy of needlecrafts as a young mother. When
she fell in love with silk and embroidery, she felt
herself called to visit to China in 1986 on an embroidery
tour, and it was there she saw the silk worms and
explored the home of exquisite textiles.
Now,
years later, she is at home in the remote regions
of that same country, sitting on a wooden stool
and visiting with her friends, the women who still
produce this exquisite work.
Dalton
brings new reading glasses to the women, for she
knows that their eyesight diminishes at an early
age from the hours and hours of working tiny stitches
in dimly lit areas. These women cannot sew during
the day, because there are chores to do, babies
to take care of, and fields to plant and tend. The
poor conditions and lack of eyeglasses can prevent
these talented hands from continuing their delicate
work, and so Dalton brings what help she can.
As
she explains to her tour group, many of the younger
women prefer jobs in cities, where they work with
computers, not with the traditional "old fashioned"
village tools.
But,
for the Miao, wealth is measured in the elaborately
embroidered baby carriers, vests, jackets, and household
treasures, and so there are women who carry on this
strong tradition of the individual techniques and
precious designs. These are the women who will teach
the Westerners Dalton brings Miao embroidery techniques
and the ultimate form of Chinese embroidery worked
on two sides.
Dalton and her group also will visit well-known
historical sites and see the weaving of silk carpets,
as well as "The Bound Foot Museum," housed in a
private home with more than 1,000 pairs of the tiny
shoes that were worn by native women before the
custom was banned.
Pat
Dalton has taken several hundred people on similar
journeys through China. As Dalton Textile Tours
has grown, so has the import business she created
after meeting these craftspeople.
She
began her import business after she bought beautiful
silk jackets and vests in China and brought them
back with her to the States. The responses she received
when she wore these treasures encouraged her to
begin importing the wares.
Staying
close to her niche, she took the gorgeous goods
with her to needlework conferences, so that she
could attend the conference and sell the jackets.
The audience was perfect; creative needle workers
love the timeless designs, the sophisticated colors,
and the lovely touches of antique embroideries.
Today, Dalton continues to show her jackets at embroidery
conferences and also as part of the online Gypsies
Collection (www.gypsiescollection.com).
Her
import business is now a growing concern, complete
with an Internet presence (www.daltontours.com)
promoting her tours and textiles.
Among
her wares are goods Dalton makes herself, ranging
from glass-bead necklaces to bead-and-pearl scissor
fobs, many of which feature butterfly shaped beads,
one of the favored symbols of the Miao, who believe
that they are descended from the butterflies. Dalton
uses the proceeds from the sale of these goods to
fund her purchase of the reading glasses she takes
with her to China.
Dalton
Textile Tours has four tours planned for 2004. On
each tour, Pat Dalton will bridge the gap of miles,
language and customs with women who share the love
of embroidery.
Donna
Kennedy:
Timeless designs, good business, and a life filled
with laughter and dreams
Donna
Kennedy, designer, entrepreneur and visionary, first
went to China on a trade mission with the governor
of Mississippi and has been fascinated with the
Orient ever since.
In
1990, she and two partners founded the Mississippi
River Trading Company (MRTC), an import business
that sold antiques selected during their travels
in China to clients on a regional, national and
even international basis.
The
Jackson, MS-based HamiltonKennedy firm (www.hamiltonkennedy.com)
grew out of Kennedy's travels to China and her delight
with the primal qualities and simple elegance of
silk. Curious and creative, Kennedy delved deeper
into the silk business in China where, inside thousands
of homes, families nurture silkworms on mulberry
leaves and then gather the cocoons, carrying them
by bicycle to the processing plants, where each
individual thread from the cocoons is extracted
by hand and spun into silk.
Kennedy
fell in love with the textiles the Chinese could
produce with that silk, and her philosophy about
design has been strongly influenced by the fabric.
Under her guidance, HamiltonKennedy creates clothing
based upon certain principals: Her designs are simple,
but wearable, resulting in garments that fit real
women and are timeless, with a comfort and ease
of fit far beyond the whims of fashion.
Kennedy
travels to China several times a year, monitoring
the quality, delivery and designs for her collections.
She brings samples to market in New York, filling
orders with the HamiltonKennedy label in stores
across the country.
On
Fifth Avenue in New York, the prestigious Japanese
store, Takashimaya, sells her elegant silk and cashmere
kimonos, robes and "pajamas."
Beau
Rivage Casinos in Las Vegas and the Mississippi
Gulf Coast also showcase the company's beautiful
garments; Kennedy works closely with the family
of Walter Inglis Anderson, Gulf Coast's premier
artist to translate his distinctive, colorful paintings
into glorious scarves, produced in China silk. The
New Orleans Fashion Group International recently
awarded her three Alfa Awards for her contributions
to fashion and design.
But,
Kennedy has another dream: She wants to bring her
expertise home, where Mississippi textile mills
have been devastated by American companies "going
global." Today, displaced garment workers are learning
to run their own businesses as Donna develops a
line of denim jeans and jackets - Mississippi Delta
Blues - inspired by the indigenous music of this
historic area.
As
I write this, Donna Kennedy is packing her suitcase
again, this time for a hiking tour of England. A
brand new collection of Mississippi Delta Blues
samples, just completed by the local Mississippi
women, gets tucked in. Kennedy knows a woman with
an upscale boutique in London who just might be
interested in these latest creations.
Mississippi
Delta Blues to London, and Chinese antiques to Taiwan,
both via Jackson, MS? It is, indeed, a small world.
CAROLYN
FINERAN spent 25 years as the creator/owner of Tapestry,
an upscale boutique in Denver. She now brings together
talented women her online trunk show called The
Gypsies Collection (www.gypsiescollection.com).
Fineran can be contacted at 303-393-0535 (e-mail:
carolyn@gypsiescollection.com).
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