INSPIRED BY OUR JOURNEYS
ai·no·ah was born from a love of travel, craft and design; a desire to support small-scale ethical production and the simple pleasure of curating unique things. Our mission is to create beautiful, limited edition homewares and gifts that tell stories of places and of their makers.
When starting our collections, it is often the memories we bring back from these places which feed our imagination.
WE DESIGN OUR COLLECTIONS WITH RESPECT AND ADMIRATION FOR CRAFT AND HERITAGE
There is something special about an object that has been made by somebodys' hands.
We are passionate about supporting traditional craft techniques that have been passed down through generations.
We aspire to connect people with the beauty of hand-crafted pieces, each as unique as the people who made them.
A LIFE IN COLOUR
Colour in all its forms delights us.
It has the power to transform mood, often without us being aware. No other place fills your senses with colour in the way India does. It is everywhere, sometimes faded, sometimes brighter than would seem possible.
Go to one of the Bazaars in Jaipur or the Phool Mandhi flower market, and you will see piles of marigolds, herbs in all shades of green, and women in rainbow-coloured saris carrying huge bags of bright red roses on their heads. Walk along the backstreets, and you will come across tiny temples, their walls covered in paintings, once bright, now faded into soft pastels.
ETHICALLY SOURCED
We believe in finding better ways of working. We partner with family-owned workshops, social enterprises and co-operatives that share our vision and want to grow together with us. They follow ethical working practises including fair wages and working hours.
We have met our artisans and visit them regularly, making sure we understand their needs and encouraging open communication and transparency.
...AND SUSTAINABLE
Our aim is to build our brand in the most eco-friendly way we can at every stage. We only use natural fabrics and seek to use recycled materials where possible, using our fabric remnants to make our dolls and locally sourced deadstock for our kantha quilts.
All our hang tags are created out of cotton paper made from waste from the textile industries, then hand-printed in a small workshop, one by one. They are completely tree-free.
Our packaging is mostly made of recycled paper as are the cards that come with your orders.
SMALL BATCHES, SLOWLY MADE
We make each of our products by hand, in limited runs. In a world where others are chasing the fast lane, we appreciate that truly beautiful things might take longer to come to us. A machine could never replicate the touch of an artisan's hand on a print, the imperfectly perfect stitches in our quilts. This is what gives our products soul. No two pieces are ever exactly alike. That's what makes them so special.
You can read more about our ethical and sustainability policy here