Wearable cartography — where tea meets textile
The scarves and wraps in this collection are more than accessories — they are a form of tea knowledge translated into fabric. Drawing from the cartographic archive at thetea.app and the trade-route atlas at tea.travel, each design is a hand-drawn map of a specific terroir. The Yiwu route silk scarf traces the old horse-and-river trails that carried shēng pǔ’ěr from the Six Famous Tea Mountains down to the markets of Yiwu town. The Phoenix cultivar silk scarf is a botanical map of the Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) and Yā Shǐ Xiāng (鸭屎香) orchards — a portrait of the Dancong patchwork that Mei Yang knows intimately. The Wuyi rocks cotton wrap plots the winding Jiuqu Stream and the cliff names where yancha bushes root into mineral-rich cracks. The Constellation bandana, printed on natural cotton, compresses all 36 brand nodes into a wearable diagram of the Teamotea universe.
Each piece is hand-printed by artisans who work in small batches, using non-toxic, mineral-based dyes. The silk is a sand-washed charmeuse with a soft, matte finish; the cotton a lightweight organic twill that softens with wear. Edges are hand-rolled and stitched with a contrasting thread — a subtle nod to the stitching on tea sacks that once carried leaves across the South China Sea.
Because these scarves are made to be worn, not framed, they are sized for everyday use. The silk squares are 90 × 90 cm, broad enough to fold into a bandeau, knot at the neck, or drape over the shoulders. The cotton wrap is 140 × 140 cm, large enough to serve as a shoulder wrap on a cool evening or a table covering during an impromptu gongfu session. The bandana is a classic 55 cm square, made for pocket or wrist.
Season after season, we release new editions that follow the tea calendar — spring harvest brings Yunnan motifs, autumn yields Wuyi and Phoenix pieces. The palette is always subdued: earthy ochres, deep indigo, muted terracotta. These are not statement scarves. They are quiet objects that begin a conversation about place.
This season’s scarves and wraps
Four new editions, each mapping a different corner of the tea world — from the ancient tea forests of Yiwu to the rocky gorges of Wuyi.