Basso & Brooke Uzbekistan prints

Renowned for creating unique textiles and prints, designers Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke travelled to Uzbekistan on one of four exchanges initiated by the British Council. The duo will present their new collection inspired by this journey in the Design Museum Tank from 16th June to 24th August.

The Basso & Brooke aesthetic is based on complex digital prints combining to create a fabric-based fashion statement. Over the past two years the British Council’s Architecture, Design, Fashion department have developed a programme of New Silk Road events in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Pakistan and Bangladesh. A series of residency exchanges combine the craft skills from the region with the contemporary visual language of designers from the UK to help forge links between practitioners in the UK and Central and South Asia.

In October 2009 Basso and Brooke spent ten days on a research tour of Uzbekistan which coincided with Uzbek Fashion Week. During their tour they spent three days working with weavers at the Yodgorlik Silk Mill in the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan. They were joined by Ruth Greanly, textile designer at Woven Studio, who worked with Basso & Brooke to design black and white Ikat prints which have been produced exclusively for them.

Filmmaker Chloë de Carvalho joined Basso and Brooke in Uzbekistan and has created a 10 minute film, which will be available to view at the Design Museum and at britishcouncil.org.

Image: Basso and Brooke