SILK SCARVES
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
ONCE UPON THE TIME ...
there lived a small girl. She was loved by all, but most by her grandmother. She gave her a cap made of red velvet, a riding hood. Little girl wore it ever since, and so she became known as Little Red Riding Hood. One day, her mother sent her to her grandma, who was ill, with a basket full of wine and pie. She warned her not to stray off the road. Grandma lived far into the woods. There, Little Red Riding Hood met a wolf. She didn’t know it was a wolf, so she was not afraid. She told him she’s on her way to her granny’s cottage. The wolf asked where granny lives, and she told him. The wolf suggested that granny might be happy if she brought her a bouquet of wild flowers. Little Red Riding Hood went to pick some, while the wolf raced towards the cottage. He introduced himself as Little Red Riding Hood, grandma open the door and the wolf swallowed her whole. He took her cap and nightgown and climbed into her bed. Little Red Riding Hood arrived later. "What big ears you have," she said. "All the better to hear you with," he claimed. "What big eyes you have!" Little Red Riding Hood awed. "All the better to see you with!" the wolf said. "Granny, what big arms you have!" she couldn’t believe her eyes. "All the better to hug you with!" the wolf growled. Finally, she screamed: "And what big mouth you have!" The wolf grinned and roared: "All the better to eat you up with!" He ate Little Red Riding Hood and then lay down in the bed. Huntsman passed the house and he couldn’t believe his ears. Would granny really snore so loudly? So he entered and saw the wolf. He thought he might still be able to save her. He opened the wolf’s belly with a pair of scissors, and out came Little Red Riding Hood and grandma. Then, they filled wolf’s belly with stones. The wolf woke up and he felt thirsty. He went to grandma’s well. But when he leaned forward to drink, his heavy stomach pulled him down the well and nobody ever saw him again.
Based on a fairy tale by Brothers Grimm
ELIŠKA CHYTKOVÁ, AUTHOR OF THE ILLUSTRATION
ELIŠKA ABOUT HERSELF
"I work as an animator and freelance illustrator. I spend most of my time in Zlín, where I graduated in animation at Tomáš Baťa University, and I liked it there so much that I stayed in the studio as an assistant. I frequently draw for Benjamina, a Scout magazine, and for the Czech Radio program Venda a Fráňa, occasionally I get the opportunity to draw pictures accompanying grand life stories, such as those of the travelers Miloslav Stingl‘s or Miroslav Zikmund‘s, or a poetic story about the Flower Garden in Kroměříž. However, my favorite is animating blood-pumping action scenes, full of characters and colors. I always scream and cry and curse myself while doing them… But everybody’s a little weird. Animation-wise, it was great fun to produce advertisements for Knihozem project of Albatros publishing house or openings for Zlín Film Festival.
I was intrigued by the Silky gang project at a time when the Čup sisters were finishing scarves based on the fairy tale Seven ravens. It seemed like a lot of work, and a few months later I learned that it really is. Martina guessed I would jump on an opportunity to do Little Red Riding Hood, and rightly so. At first, I couldn't find the right composition of the illustration. The desire to do something new and fresh was too strong, but as many times before, the golden rule proved true. I realized that the simplest solution is usually the best, and I decided to use the most basic shape - a circle - with equally simple central composition. My goal was to spin wolf’s, Little Red Riding Hood’s and your’s heads. It's hard to tell who is the victim in this story and who is the winner. Anyway, my Little Red Riding Hood is a tease and the wolf wants to have her for himself, for a long time and with pleasure. It is a date of a woman and a man who, after a long journey through the forest, end up in each other’s arms.
Usually I draw digitally, but here I tried to combine digital technique with traditional crayons that I utilized for wolf heads (or perhaps forests?) in the corners of the scarf."
MARTINA ABOUT ELIŠKA
"When I was looking for an illustrator, I got a tip from Viktor Svoboda (he made Otesánek for SG) to ask Eliška. I fancied her playfulness and certain wildness that in my opinion lies in her work. Motive of Little Red Riding Hood was perfect match for her. At first, we struggled a little with the composition of the scarf, but concentric circles with many wolves and Little Red Riding Hoods were the correct choice. I specifically didn’t want the scarf to be red by default, that’s why there is grey countryside in the background for those two, who were portrayed more as a man and a woman, eternally longing for each other. I think that Eliška did a terrific job with the whole motive and she elevated the Silky gang scarves to a whole new level.
I am also a big fan of the fact that part of the motive was made in crayon, it adds something interesting to the whole design and shows a wider range of possibilities when illustrating our scarves."
SCARVES‘ MATERIAL AND PACKAGING
Author’s design is printed either on 100 % silk twill with rolled edges (Colossus 90x90 cm and Tinkerbell 43x43 cm) or on the voile made of 30 % silk and 70 % fine cotton (Giant 130x130 cm). The scarves are packaged in handmade boxes. Also included are certificates with fairy tales and an original string with a pearl button. It is used for tying scarves and arranging them as part of an outfit. 100 % silk scarves have a unique serial number in their certificates. They are produced in limited series - only 100 pieces of Colossus and 200 pieces of Tinkerbells.