Of Gossamer and Gold
“The garment is the setting, and the embroidery is the stone…”
(All photos courtesy Kumari.)
Imagine traveling across India for the finest silk, arriving in Mumbai, renowned for the most intricate beading in the world. Artisans you have known for years greet you with warm smiles and unroll bolt after bolt across the table. You choose each piece yourself, running your hands over embroidery from Lucknow, thousands of beads set into silk so sheer it weighs almost nothing. Gossamer and gold, worn as easily in India as in Hawai‘i.
For Kumari founder Amy Mali, traveling from Honolulu to Mumbai is all in a day’s work. Originally from California, Mali spent years in Silicon Valley at a social impact company that supplied clean water for disaster relief. The experience deepened her commitment to sustainability and fair livelihoods, a belief she carries through to Kumari’s intentional collections, steeped in artisan craftsmanship.
Mali’s first experience with such artistry came through her marriage to her husband, whose family is from Maharashtra. She set about learning his world, starting with the regional ways of tying a saree.
“From necessity, my passion grew,” she says. At their Indian wedding, she wore a zardozi gown, handmade and worked in gold thread. Whenever she wears those pieces now, the wedding returns to her. “Clothing can carry memories and meaning,” she says.
Drawing on the natural beauty of her home in Hawai‘i, she releases one collection a year, an approach that gives the work enough time to be done properly. A single piece can take upward of a thousand hours.
“Fashion has become so fast,” Mali says. Against an industry built on speed, she sees that patience as its own kind of sustainability: garments made by hand to be worn for decades and passed down as heirlooms.
This thoughtfulness — clothing as art you wear and feel special in — is reflected in her latest Jewels of Paradise collection. She thinks of the pieces the way a jeweler would. “The garment is the setting, and the embroidery is the stone,” she says — a meeting of India and the Pacific rarely seen in fashion.
Kumari is not sold online, by design. It can be found at luxury resorts, where it can be experienced in person, as Mali intends. Find Jewels of Paradise at Caprice, Four Seasons Resort O‘ahu at Ko Olina.
Kumari’s pieces are brought to life through intricate hand embroidery, beadwork and time-honored techniques, thoughtfully reimagined with the ease and natural beauty of Hawai‘i.
(Photos courtesy Kumari.)