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feature
THAI ONE ON
by Shana K. Wilson
Marisa Baratelli is the consummate “girl next door” gone international. Although she grew up locally, Baratelli made frequent trips to Thailand with her mother, designer Madeleine Cranfill. As a young adult Marisa traveled throughout Southeast Asia, and then earned a degree in cultural anthropology. These days she applies that knowledge as she lives in Bangkok, where she oversees production (while speaking the Thai language) as the creative director for the Baratelli line.
Intense colors with the iridescent and luminous quality of contrasting warp and weft in Baratelli’s hand-woven Thai silk are trademarks of each collection; each season she launches over 100 styles and 30 colors.
Her designs are romantic, feminine and yet wonderfully contemporary. She often uses beading and ruffles in her collections. After launching her beautiful silk evening gowns, Baratelli debuted her first blouse collection in 2001. Today her designs also include suits, special occasion clothing and bridal wear.
Baratelli, her mother and staff will also create unique special order designs. The special orders are delivered in four to six weeks and give women the ability to choose beading or unique two-tone color combinations for their garment.
Décor & Style readers can find Marisa Baratelli fashions at a new location opening in La Jolla this month. The store Donna Marsh will be located at 7712 Fay Ave.
A Spiritual Endeavor
According to legend, the culturing and weaving of silk dates back to China 4,000 years ago. In those times, the process of reeling silk from a cocoon was kept secret by Chinese emperors, and anyone who divulged the process or took the silk worms abroad was threatened with death.
For approximately the last 1,000 years, since people from southern China migrated to Thailand, Thai farmers have been weaving silk during the off-season of rice farming. The culture of weaving silk became a folk craft, the domain of Thai women. Sometimes as many as 8,000 threads would be woven into one garment. The cloth, and even certain colors of dye used to tint it, became the sole property of royalty.
Fast forward to 2007, when advanced technology and machines have taken away the need for such skillful workmanship. Only a few remaining craftsmen know how to practice the tradition of hand weaving silk. That small group uses looms and ancient techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation.
Prior to weaving the silk yarn it has to be harvested, cleaned, bleached, sorted, dyed and wound onto spools; only then is it ready to be hand woven. Because weaving silk by hand takes more time than by machine, and requires great patience and skill, the average weaver can produce only eight yards of Thai silk a day. The production is still considered, as it always has been, a spiritual endeavor.
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