Our Story

THE FOUNDER

Patriae’s collection of original goods is expertly crafted from antique homespun, handwoven hemp and linen textiles sourced in Barbara’s homeland in Central/Eastern Europe. Woven between the early-19th and mid-20th centuries, the durable organic textiles that are used in the Patriae collection are rich with individual stories of family-based subsistence farming, indigenous heritage crafts, and women’s traditional handwork. Historically, each family in this region harvested their own hemp and flax, spun these fibers into thread, then wove the thread into fabrics that were handsewn into clothes and other items such as towels, tablecloths, pillows, sheets, grain sacks, and wagon covers.

Our one-of-a-kind tote bags, pouches, runners, wall-hangings, and other goods are designed to highlight the character of each fabric, and continue in the tradition of local production, handcraft, and utilitarian design. Worn grainsacks, sheets, and other historic items are re-purposed into functional pieces, each handmade in-house at the Patriae studio in a historic school turned arts center in Ocean Grove, NJ. Because Patriae products are meant to be used and loved, they are all durable, and machine-washable.

PATRIÆ ORIGINALS

Patriae began as founder Barbara Pisch’s side project twenty years ago when she made a tote bag from an antique handwoven hemp grainsack. A friend wanted one, then another friend, then a friend’s store, and so on. This passion project slowly and organically grew into a business, and in 2016 Barbara opened her small showroom and sewing studio in Asbury Park, NJ. Over the next few years the space evolved from its original format into a boutique that focuses on unique and skillfully-crafted new and vintage goods and clothes, sourced both locally and internationally, and often from within Barbara’s group of talented friends. In early 2022, the shop expanded to a larger corner space half a block away, and the focus on skilled handcraft and one-of-a-kind design has remained the modus operandi for Patriae.

The guiding principles and aesthetics behind Patriae are informed by founder Barbara Pisch's own history. Born in Slovakia, she relocated with her family to the US as a child and started returning to her homeland as a teenager, where she began collecting antiques as a way of connecting to her heritage. Her collecting quickly began to focus on antique hemp and linen textiles, which aligns with her family history of tailoring and textile work; her grandfather was a well-known tailor in Czechoslovakia with an atelier of forty tailors, and her parents both became tailors upon arrival in the US. She grew up sewing, crocheting, and knitting and continues to enjoy all of these crafts.

Barbara spent her childhood on the Jersey shore, then twenty years in NYC working in various design industries and galleries, acquiring a graduate degree in the history of decorative arts, and honing her eye, before returning to her beloved beach and family at the shore and focusing her career on her own projects.

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