The hours after the day lets go of you

there is an hour here, around six, when the light turns the colour of weak tea and the day finally stops asking me for anything.

I used to meet that hour badly. Still in whatever I had pulled on before sadhana, hair up, the day's dust still on me. Cooking, or sitting on the floor with my son, or carrying a cup of tea from one room to another, and then catching my reflection somewhere and thinking: she looks like someone who is still working.

Because I was. That is the part nobody says out loud about working from the place you also live. The day does not end. It just gets dimmer.

The dressing we skip

We dress for the office. We dress for the dinner, the wedding, the flight. We have a whole language for it, and a whole wardrobe.

And then there is the other half of a life, the hours between six and ten at night, the ones that actually hold the people we love, and for those we wear whatever has survived the day. The soft thing with the stretched neck. The shorts we would not answer the door in.

I am not interested in shaming anyone for that. I lived in it for years. I am interested in what changes when you stop.

Why I made an evening set

The reason I made it, in my own words:

“I made this set because getting dressed for your home is just as important as getting dressed to go out. Imagine walking through your house in this, for yourself and for your partner. When I feel sensual, when I feel good, everything expands.”

That is the whole brief. Not loungewear, which apologises for itself. Not evening wear, which needs somewhere to go. Something that belongs to the hour between, and is not embarrassed about it.

It became The Anusara Evening Set, and it is the newest piece in the Oracle Collection. If you know the original Anusara Set, this is its evening sister, in a different cloth entirely.

What it is made of

Silk and cotton. The silk carries the light, the cotton keeps it breathable through a warm night, which in Bali is every night. We wrote about the blend and how it behaves here.

A soft top with full sleeves, and an easy pant. The lace at the cuffs and at the pant hems is woven by hand, which means the pattern never repeats perfectly, and no two sets in the run are identical. It is hand stitched in Bali by our artisan families, in their own homes and in small workshops the tailors own themselves, never a factory.

It comes in Dark Moon Black, in S/M and M/L. There are ten sets in this first run.

The back is the whole idea

From the front it is quiet. Almost plain. You could wear it to the kitchen and nobody would say a word.

Then you turn around, and the back opens to a single tie at the neck.

I did that on purpose. A garment that is quiet from the front and open from the back is a garment for a house, not a street. It is for the person who sees you walk away down a hallway. It is the most private kind of beautiful there is, and it is almost never designed for, because it cannot be photographed on a red carpet.

What is honest about it

The lace is woven by hand, so expect small irregularities in the pattern. They are the mark of the hands that made it. Silk and cotton relaxes rather than creases, and softens with every wash.

Cold hand wash is kindest. In a machine, use a mesh bag on a gentle cycle so the lace has nothing to catch on. Hang to dry out of direct sun, and never wring the lace.

It leaves Bali three to six weeks after you order, then travels 5 to 15 business days with DHL. That is the making, not a delay.

If you only take one thing from this letter

It does not have to be this set. Go and look at what you actually wear between six and ten at night, and ask whether you chose any of it.

Most of us did not. Most of us inherited it, by accident, from a version of ourselves who was too tired to decide. And the hours we hand to that version are not the spare hours. They are the dinner, the bath, the long conversation, the last cup of tea. They are the ones we will want back.

Choose something for them. That is all.

With love from Bali,
Myrah