Fashioning a career in basketry
- Kim uses natural materials in her practice
- She repairs as well as makes baskets
- She was apprentice to Jean Paul Bavoillot, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France
A former shop worker in the fashion industry, Kim Ahn Le Thi was always attracted to the popular wicker sun mirrors regularly seen in the pages of interior decoration magazines. This interest in wicker led her to teach herself basketweaving; later she decided to attend the only basketry school in France, the Ecole Nationale d'Osiériculture et de Vannerie de Fayl Billot, in Haute Marne. She opened her own workshop in June 2018. Kim is very interested in how wicker can be combined to other materials such as leather and ceramics to make functional or non-functional items. "Basketry has an undeniable power of nostalgia. We have all kept a basket of our grandmother's, and often customers tell me about a father or a grandfather who wove by the fire,” she says.
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
My best source of inspiration is the fashion world in general, since I used to work in it. I am inspired by the things that have surrounded me so far. I work with natural materials but I am really a city girl, so I try to do modern things with traditional techniques.
What interests me above all is the idea of combining these materials with others, such as leather or ceramics, and making them into everyday objects, useful or not, practical or not. The important thing is creating objects I like to surround myself with.
The first thing I would suggest to anyone who wants to take up my profession is to clearly identify what your customer base wants. For example, my target audience is women and girls who love fashion and love to feel beautiful.
No, on the contrary. Younger consumers are increasingly looking for sustainable objects and products that are natural and non-industrial. They want to know where the material I use comes from. Fortunately, in recent years more and more people have been driven towards this craft.
2 EXPERIENCES
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