The Shop Update - Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation expect production and shipping delays.
Accessories brand Sahel began life in 2008 in the desert of Burkina Faso, where founder and former fashion editor Charlie Davies spent seven years living amongst the Fulani. Moving back to London Sahel became a vehicle for bringing high-end Burkinabe craft skills and products to international audiences.
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Trésors d’Afrique translates as Treasures from Africa, and is an ode to past and present, culture and modernity presented in the form of luxury jewellery pieces by the prestigious French jeweller and watchmaker Chaumet in collaboration with Kenyan artist, Evans Mbugua who is based in Paris. Trésors d’Afrique is third and final destination in the Mondes du Chaumet collection, a globe-trotting journey through jewels that has taken in the splendours of Russia, and Japan. Chaumet is inspired by the coming together of different cultures that celebrate and honour majestic femininity to create new ideas, imagined by their master jewellers who continually […]
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Water Hyacinth is a plant that takes root in waterways the world over, causing destruction to aquatic and plant eco-systems. For communities that rely on their waterways for food, livelihoods, and transportation water hyacinth blocks access to the water essential to their survival. In Nigeria, a local social enterprise, MitiMeth, is harvesting water hyacinth and turning it into functional handcrafted products, and empowering members of the local community.
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Luxury footwear ZYNE, known for modernising the traditional Moroccan babouche slipper has launched an exclusive crystal embellished satin and raffia collection with the online luxury fashion portal Net-a-Porter. The collection features the brand’s signature style of jewel colour tones, elaborate embroidery and shimmering beads and sequins. For about ZYNE see my previous feature here.
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Kenyan-based jewellery designer Adele Dejak turns to her Nigerian roots with Àmi, her latest luxury jewellery collection designed in collaboration with Afrominima, the Nigerian design and lifestyle brand by Olubunmi Adeyemi that fuses the ethos of Scandinavian style, Japanese minimalism with African heritage.
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Babouches are a Moroccan slipper style of footwear. In their traditional form, they can be found in abundance in souks across the country. A favourite of tourists, babouches have now made the transition from colourful travel mementos to high fashion having turned up on the international catwalks in recent years courtesy of local designers such as Zineb Britel and Laura Pujol founders of the luxury footwear brand, ZYNE who are tapping into their heritages to modernise and elevate the Moroccan footwear.
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Reform Studio is an Egyptian based furniture and product design studio that I first featured on Atelier Fifty Five a couple of years ago. The company founded by Hend Riad and Mariam Hazem focuses on sustainable design, using materials such as discarded plastic and cotton threads to create Plastex, their durable, eco-friendly material. The award-winning studio now introduces Torero a collection of eco-fashion satchels made out of the company’s signature fabric and crafted by the skillful hands of two craftsmen and two housewives. Torero is all about style with a purpose.
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Khokho is a luxury line of basket bags handwoven in Swaziland. The brand is the result of a collaboration between Philippa Thorne, Creative Director of Gone Rural and Sapna Shah, a handbag designer who was looking for a new challenge focusing on artisan crafts and smaller production.
Read MoreExperimental textile designer Yemi Awosile introduces L. Solstice, a limited-edition collection of hand-dyed and printed scarves produced in India. Made from natural textiles the scarves feature striking patterns that are achieved with hand-carved block prints using natural vegetable and mineral dyes and techniques including indigo mud resist.
Read MorePichulik is a South African jewellery label that creates jewellery for brave women. The brand was founded by Katherine-Mary Pichulik and is inspired by the intimate relationship women have with their jewellery, and a love of travel, incorporating the influences of diverse cultures to create what can be summed up as a truly global chic aesthetic.
Read More[Image credit: Choker – Taher Chemirik/Artsy] Fluid, sculptural pieces formed out of shimmering gold and silver metals are defining characteristics of Algerian designer, Taher Chemirik’s striking jewellery pieces, which include bold, oversized cuffs and giant links that form statement chokers. Hailing from a family of designers, Taher describes his upbringing as ‘unconventional’, and cites his sources of inspiration as being his African roots, Oriental sophistication, modern art, and the antiques he collects in Paris’ famed flea markets; the city he now calls home.
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