Why We’re Wild About this Eco Couture from Cambodia

Pair up starchitect hotelier Bill Bensley with couture textiles pioneer Eric Raisina and you get the wildest fashion shoot ever. By Jeninne Lee-St. John. Photographed by Oyen Rodriguez 

If you haven’t heard of Eric Raisina Haute Textue you should rethink your wardrobe. The Madagascar-born designer, with ateliers in Paris and Siem Reap, creates beautiful, handmade, airy attire that’s right at home among the climate and aesthetic of Southeast Asia. Light and floaty, ethereal yet somehow “everyday,” Raisina’s silk and raffia clothes are both eminently packable and the ultimate in resortwear statement pieces — meaning, perfect for travel, especially our kind of luxury off-grid perambulations.

They’re also made entirely of natural and sustainable fabrics, often sculpted into shapes found in the wild, or inspired by life in Cambodia.

Which is why it makes all the sense that Raisina is good pals with the greener-than-thou, pull-no-punches hotel designer who created Shinta Mani Wild, Bill Bensley. The prolific American’s Harvard degree in landscape design has revealed its full potential in this luxury tented camp (and others, like reigning No. 1 hotel in the world, Capella Ubud) that was built without cutting down any trees nor disturbing any natural migration and water patterns. The Jackie O.-on-safari-themed property, which Bensley had originally bought to save it from loggers and poachers, is an ode to the nature of southern Cardamom parklands, and to Cambodia itself.

In full: https://travelandleisureasia.com/why-were-wild-about-this-sustainable-couture-from-cambodia/

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