AsiaLIFE

From Pippi-Long Stockings to Street 240, Rachel Faller has travelled a long way. The owner of Keok’jay talks with Melissa Fisher.

Walking into the cool shaded interior of Keok’jay, a young woman in pleated braids is sewing away on a round table. It’s crowded with buttons and odd bits of cloth. Rachel Faller is the owner of this alternative fashion clothing shop on coveted Street 240. Keok’jay employees HIV positive women to produce bags, shirts, skirts, and other fashionable products made with sustainable materials.

Pushing a pile of buttons and string aside, the 23-year-old Bostonian relates her journey from creating her first Pippi-Long Stockings outfit out of a used sweater, aged 8, to Cambodia’s own Green Fashionista, via a degree in conceptual art. Two years ago, Rachel travelled to Cambodia for the first time with a philanthropic mentor. They shared the idea of starting a business employing women with HIV, providing them with a source of income. When her mentor pulled out, the future didn’t look too promising. In September 2008, she was living off a U.S. Fulbright scholarship that was insufficient to cover the salaries of the local women dependent on her for an income. “I just had to make it work,” she says. After attending tradeshows in Siem Reap and receiving individual orders, she featured products at Artisans Collection on Street 240, securing additional clients.

“One day I was walking down 240 and I saw a “For Rent” sign,” she says. “It was a big risk, but this is a hot spot.” Through her personal fundraising and the shop’s new sales she is able to keep Keok’jay operating. For Rachel, Keok’jay is an art project, with the goal of transferring responsibilities to the Cambodian staff. “I see myself more as a community artist, not just a designer for my own sake,” she explains. “NGOs that try to incorporate selling handicrafts like hand sewn bags are cool, but their products are not marketable. They don’t consider the design. People should buy products because they like them, not because they feel bad or guilty.”

In the tiny sewing room above the shop, Rachel pulls out the shop’s latest prints inspired by the market – fish, bicycle wheels, balconies, and raw scenes of new life springing from urban decay. “Cambodia is a great conflation of the city and the country colliding in a beautiful way!” she says. On a printed T-shirt, recycled bag or skirt, Keok’jay offers customers just that.

Skirts US$28 Shirts US$20, belts US$10, cards US$2-8, teddy bears US$30. Keok’jay, 52A, Street 240, Tel: 012 904 154, www.keokjay.org