OFANTIQUE
Expressive art on & off the mat
The time has finally arrived – tomorrow you join your besties in a weeklong yoga retreat at the posh Kamalaya Koh Samui. Your travel tote is stocked to the brim with enough Lulelemon and we’ar organic to sink a ship. The only thing missing? A gorgeous yoga mat bag that exudes confidence and style.
Born during a 2011 family voyage through Southeast Asia with her family, Portuguese designer Rita Teixeira Bastos discovered the intoxicating world of antique textiles, hand crafted by the talented hill-tribe women who live in the rural mountains of northern Thailand, Laos and China. A yoga enthusiast who saw an opportunity to create one-of-a-kind, luxury goods out of her new passion for the colorful, antique textiles, a little research revealed a gap in the retail market for affluent consumers hungry to accessorize healthy lifestyles.
Created from antique textiles hand embroidered over 40 years ago – each OFANTIQUE yoga mat bag is a labor of love. “As a mother, I fell in love with the fabric created for these antique baby carriers…their beauty, uniqueness and the history that surrounds them,” says Rita. “The baby carriers are often done prior to marriage by a girl, sometimes working together with her mother, and is a display of skill as well as a work of art. A girl who can weave and embroider special patterns is considered hardworking and extraordinarily intelligent, more often than not the most sought-after bride in the community.”
