Our Mama's Story
A life she wove herself
Our grandmother grew up in Taishan, in southern China. It's a place known for the people who left it, for a century it sent its sons abroad and waited on the money they sent home.
Māma stayed. She couldn't afford an education, so she learned to weave, and she wove until there was enough. Enough for herself, for her children, and her independence.
My Mama's Story
I realised it was mine too
For a long time I thought of Māma's story as history. Something that happened to someone else, a long way back.
Then it struck me that it was mine too, I'd wanted exactly what she wanted, to stand on my own, and I'd never once put the two together.
Once I saw it, I saw it everywhere. In the women who make our bags. In women who never met her. Probably in you.
Belinda
Your Mama's Story
We told her story. It turned out to be everyone's.
Her story is more than fifty years old. We thought of it as history.
It isn't. We keep hearing it back - from the women who make our bags, and from women who never met her, in places she never went. Wanting to stand on your own doesn't date.
So we'd rather not keep it to ourselves. We'd love Māma's Story to become something women share, take on as their own, and pass on.
Discover what her craft became
Woven Leather
Full-grain leather, braided by hand. Supple enough to weave, sturdy enough to hold its shape, and gets more beautiful the longer you carry it.
Mendong
A soft, straw-like fibre woven through with full-grain leather. The mendong keeps it feather-light, the leather keeps its shape, and it lasts for years
Rattan
The weave that inspired it all. Rattan grows wild in the Indonesian rainforest, harvested and woven by hand - a renewable vine, so no trees are felled.