[ECO TIPS]
✔︎ Fairtrade
✔︎ Support poverty reduction
✔︎ Package free

Large bag hand embroidered in Dakar, fully lined with a large inside pocket. Can be worn in the city, on the beach or for a trip.

[FEATURES]
Embroidery: "AMOUR" ("LOVE" in French)
100% Cotton Wax Fabric

What is wax fabric? African wax prints, are omnipresent and common materials for clothing in Africa, especially West Africa. They are industrially produced, colorful cotton cloths with batik-inspired printing. The wax prints are part of a nonverbal way of communication among African women, and hereby they carry their message out into the world. Some wax prints can be named after personalities, cities, building, sayings or occasions.

The method for the production of imitation batik cloth proceeds as follows. A block-printing machine applies resin to both sides of the fabric. It is then submerged into the dye, in order to allow the dye to repel the resin covered parts of the fabric. This process is repeated, to build up a colored design on the fabric. 

[SPECS]
Height : 36 cm
Width : 42 cm
Depth : 13 cm
Handle length : 57 cm

Others: Lining, inside pocket

[CARE INSTRUCTIONS]
Please note that all works are done by hand, there may be slight differences with the specs. 

Valérie Schlumberger settles at the age of 16 in Senegal with her young husband. Three years and three children later, she creates a clothing workshop in Dakar, and opens a shop devoted to her clothing line on the island of Gorée. There, she meets many couturiers, dyers, embroiderers, weavers, as well as tinsmiths, carpenters, potters, painters, whose know-how amazes her.

Ten years later, Valérie returns to live in Paris. In 1995, she founded the CSAO (Compagnie du Sénégal et de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) and opened her first boutique in Paris. Its goal: to disseminate in France and Europe the fruit of the work of the best craftsmen and artists of West Africa, while building lasting and equitable links with each one of them. In parallel, Valérie creates the ASAO (Association for Senegal and West Africa), which takes care of the renovation of an old cinema of Dakar, and transforms it into a place of lodging for street children.

For more than twenty years, the CSAO has collaborated with the same craftsmen, the same artists, and the ASAO with the same social workers. These two stable structures allow everyone to flourish which does not prevent the reception of new talents, or, in the framework of ASAO, new goodwill. The CSAO and the ASAO are permanently working interactively between France, Senegal, and more broadly West Africa, because some craftsmen and artists come from Mali, Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Mauritania ... Since 2012 Ondine Saglio, one of Valérie's daughters, has joined the adventure. In agreement with the craftsmen, Ondine develops some products, cushions, bags, to better adapt them to the modern taste.

We were attracted by they way they have made Fair trade as the core of their business from the beginning. The handmade embroidery done in Senegal craftsmen are truly one of a kind. In addition to the wax fabrics that we have introduced, they also use various types of materials as well which makes the brand more versatile and is therefore one of the reason why CSAO is supported by well-known brands around the world. We are looking forward to watching their future activities!