Story

Rain Ogilvie is a unique textile company passionately dedicated to traditional and sustainable artisanship. Our luxury design and stylish brand is committed to the creation of ethical fabrics, garments, and accessories for fashion and interior design. Here you will find unique products that are created from 100% handmade (hand-loomed and hand-woven) fabrics from talented artisans in rural Thailand. Many of our partners have over 40 years’ experience making beautiful textiles in traditional ways. Our natural materials are grown, spun, dyed and woven within networks of rural cottage industries. The traditional knowledge and skills involved in these processes are part of the folk heritage of rural Thai communities. Such artisanship is typically passed down within extended families.

Our locally produced organic cotton and silks are of the highest quality, and we have a wide selection of hand-dyed fabrics using natural colours from locally sourced plants, flowers, and specially selected earth (see below). Some of our collections include one-of-a-kind pieces. Our traditional Batik Ikat silk, for instance, has been carefully washed to remove the existing Ikat colours. It is then dip-dyed using the Batik (tub dye) technique to create attractive and idiosyncratic colours and patterns on the faded Ikat background. These processes make each piece of silk truly unique.

Our mud-dipped cotton range highlights our commitment to tradition and organic processes. Mud dipping involves soaking pre-woven (spun and dyed) cotton in mud sourced from sacred ancient local waters. The mineral content of the mud produces a fabric that is soft to the touch and soft on the eye; the process works on organic colourings to enhance a pastel-like finish. Many of our fabrics come in a variety of thicknesses, textures, and weaves.

Rain Ogilvie prides itself on the quality of its fabrics. It is important to highlight however that occasional minor ‘imperfections’ (in the form of slubs and burrs – tiny knots and knobbles) are more common with handmade fabrics than mass-produced industrial textiles. Such ‘imperfections’ should not be read as a sign of poor quality however, but instead as a mark of authenticity; that our fabrics have been lovingly spun and woven by hand using traditional long-established techniques. To see the quality of Rain Ogilvie’s fabrics please feel free to get in touch.