There’s an Arabic saying used liberally between honest friends answering hopeful questions - “Fil Mish-Mish”. Literally, it means ‘When apricots bloom’ and it’s what linguists call an ‘idiom of improbability’. I’d say the closest English counterpart is something like ‘When pigs fly’ or ‘I wouldn’t count on it’. Although pigs won’t ever fly, that saying never feels quite like a hard ‘never’ and Fil Mish-Mish has that same sort of strength of statement.

Until this very moment, Story mfg.’s SS21 collection was never a certainty. It was always Fil Mish-Mish.

As a company, we made peace with us never having it (despite constantly working towards it), and our makers downed tools each day with the understanding that they may not be allowed to return to their work for weeks, or even months. India has had an especially turbulent time with COVID, and although we don’t relish the responsibility, we are extremely proud to be able to continue working with our friends out there.

This collection is special because it's designed to support. It involves as many hands, practices, people and friends as possible, to ensure we all share security for as long as people buy Story. This season explores a whole range of new natural dyes, newly developed hand knitting and crochet techniques, a huge amount of organic linen and some really really beautiful embroidery work. We are also super excited to keep exploring block printing with artwork from collaborator Worn Spiral. New fabrics include organic cotton velvet hand-dyed in bright citrusy green (myrobalan + indigo) and rich orange (madder root), a handwoven spiral repeat jacquard and partially clamp-dyed linen.

Photography: Hollie Fernando
Styling: Lottie Warren and Story Mfg.
Models: Monica Buchan-Ng and Farid Fakhre