Thos from tschagsalmaa Borchuu on Vimeo.
I believe there is no other culture as closely linked to horses as it is the case with Mongolians. And I am not talking historically. Tschagsalmaa Borchuu a young mongolian fashion design strategist who grew up and studied in the west transfers part of her cultural heritage into a new contemporary and culturally unbound context. A brand called THOS (mongolian:dust) .
Every year in Mongolia there are numerous horseraces that have a vivid cultural meaning for the mongols which is hard to estimate in importance. It is a mongolian believe that when you stand within the dust of these races and if you get to touch the horses sweat after the race you’ll be blessed with the greatest luck imaginable. Her fashion brand THOS consists of high quality cashmere clothing (a traditional mongolian product) that has been worn by the child jockeys during the race. In this way the sweater becomes soaked in with all the elements, -and yes it will be sold dirty.
THOS plays with the connotation of cashmere as a traditional luxury good. Something precious will be sold “used and dirty” while at the same time loaded with what mongolians consider to be most precious. Two understandings of luxury merge in one new product which is ambigious and truly outstanding.
