Basso & Brooke is a fashion label formed by Bruno Basso and Christopher Brooke. In 2004, the duo won Fashion Fringe, a UK talent competition to search out for the next big thing in fashion. They have since become known for their pioneering use of colourful digital printing in textiles. They used this skill to design prints inspired by Turning Leaf wines for a limited edition dining set collection to kick off Turning Leaf’s Designers in Residence programme. In 2006, the pair won the Elle Style Best New Designer award in 2006. Bruno was born in Brazil and trained in graphic art, and Chris was born in Nottingham and trained in fashion design.

Uzbekistan has inspired Basso & Brooke’s new capsule collection. Inspired by the many treasures of the country and its ancient place on the legendary Silk Road, British fashion designers Basso & Brooke have created a stunning collection of six contemporary ensembles. The capsule collection is the result of a multi-layered collaboration between fashion and textile partners in the UK and Uzbekistan, initiated and delivered by the British Council with assistance from the Fund Forum.

Over the past few years the British Council, in partnership and with support by the Fund, have run a programme of events in Uzbekistan that have focused on combining the unique craft skills from this region with the contemporary visual language of designers from the UK, to forge links between practitioners in the UK and Central Asia and to sustain these unique skills whilst opening up new opportunities for collaboration.

Since 2006, a range of British designers have worked with local weavers from the Yodgorlik Silk Factory in Margilan to develop new designs and fabrics using their traditional ikat techniques. Visiting designers have embraced the potential of the traditional craft skills they encountered in Uzbekistan, and have been consistently impressed with the quality of weavers’ work and their skill in producing the ikat patterns. Bruno Basso remarked that, ‘What was particularly unique is the way that the weavers tie and then dye the warps, to create their intricate patterns. They have a level of skill in this area that we do not see now in modern European textile manufacturing’.

In October 2009, Basso and Brooke spent ten days on a research tour of Uzbekistan and attended last year’s Art Week “Style.Uz”. While in Uzbekistan, they had the opportunity to enjoy hospitality shown by the organisers of the Art Week. They also spent three days studying traditional ikat weaving at the Yodgorlik silk mill in Marghilan. Collaborating with Ruth Greany, from London-based Woven Studio, they designed custom ikats which were dyed in black, on various weights of white silk and woven at Yodgorlik mill.

The resulting fabrics were shipped to the UK and digitally printed with the same graphics used in Basso & Brooke’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection, shown at London Fashion Week in February. One dress from this collection was replicated six times to display examples of the fabric and prints designed through this exciting collaboration. Basso & Brooke’s lasting impression of the Uzbek landscape has been interpreted in their graphic backdrops.