Chinese tea · indigo, orange thread, brass
Held together with stitch and rivets
Indigo twill, a double arcuate in orange thread, copper at the corners, a red tab for the name. Thirty-four Chinese teas presented as workwear rather than as gifts.
Chinese tea · indigo, orange thread, brass
Indigo twill, a double arcuate in orange thread, copper at the corners, a red tab for the name. Thirty-four Chinese teas presented as workwear rather than as gifts.
3 teas · 3 categories
Every element here has a job before it has a look: the stitch holds two layers, the rivet takes the strain at the corner, the tab names the thing, the stamp records the lot. That is close to how a working tea is handled, weighed, dated, labelled and drunk daily, rather than kept for an occasion. Indigo gives the dark leaf a ground that is neither black nor brown, so pu-erh reads as itself and not as a shadow. Orange thread is the only accent, used at the weight of a real seam, which keeps the page from needing a second colour. On the white versions the cloth is removed and the stitching is left floating, to show that the construction alone carries the identity. Chinese tea is often dressed as ceremony; this shop dresses it as work clothes that get better with washing.