Afshan Durrani is a designer and multi-disciplinary artist who collaborates with highly skilled artisans to create distinctive and iconoclastic products including apparel, jewelry and fabrics that appeal to a higher level of aesthetic and awareness. In 2002, Afshan launched her company Lost City Products to restore the values of handcraftsmanship in an age of automation in which such crafts are vanishing and artisans are being deprived of their livelihood. Lost City is a progressive alliance of artisans and entrepreneur whose goal is to honor, preserve and advance the age old traditions of hand embroidery.

 

Brands like Ralph Lauren Home and architects of the caliber of Peter Marino have relied upon Lost City for customized hand embroidered fabric since the company was launched. In May 2006 Afshan launched her own collection of fabric through AM Collections showroom in New York to great acclaim. This original line contains some of the best examples of fabrics created by human hands anywhere in the world and will soon to be available in San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Each piece is a modern work of art that is sophisticated, timeless and unparalleled in attention to detail and artistic style.

 

Afshan studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She divides her time between India and New York.

 

 

Design from India is often perceived to be only about dancing elephants, paisley motifs, and other limiting stereotypes. The truth is, India has a spectacular and mind-boggling wealth of art and design but we are afraid to experiment and push the envelope. At Lost City, we are celebrating our heritage but also taking design to a higher level. We need our national institutions to help get the quality and image of hand crafted product out of the ghetto to be world class.