Our first commitment is to promote traditional Moroccan crafts. Therefore, our design process starts with what the artisans do and how they do it. The sketching and thought process around the final product comes in to serve the craft and not the other way around. We then take the time to tell the story of each one of these crafts, including origin, technique and time consumption.
By telling the stories of our artisans and the techniques they master, we can raise awareness around the time consumption involved in making luxury goods. It is fundamental for us to raise our customers’ awareness around the time it takes for an artisan to train to become a master, and furthermore, the time it takes to make each product.
We build partnerships with master artisans that work independently, and our desire is to support them in growing their structures through the work they do for us. We feel that by paying them higher rates for the work they do, provided they take the time necessary to make the highest quality products possible, we can help them see the value in producing less but in better quality, as well as motivating a younger generation to learn the crafts. We reject the classic “exploitative” business model that squeezes artisans to lower cost prices and promote a collaborative model that allows the artisans to set their own prices and are encouraged to elevate them if they are ready to invest more time in product development and production. This also can reduce the influx of youth toward working in factories that serve the fast fashion industry in Morocco.
We are committed to producing the highest quality of goods and have an after sales department that recommends repair rather than disposal of fashion goods. We believe in promoting quality rather than quantity.
In a similar vein, our collections are designed on the outskirts of current trends. We believe in offering timeless pieces that will be as relevant today as in the future. The crafts we showcase are hundreds of years old and creating collections that become obsolete within a few months is senseless to us. We therefore always carry a core collection that we invigorate with new colors and materials every season, and may offer occasional seasonal capsules that will be limited in production and will not be available once sold out. We never go on sale for the same reason. We want to regain value for the crafts, not spread it thin with large productions that will then need to go on sale.
Apart from chosen exceptional retail venues ( ie: Royal Mansour Marrakech or www.industrieafrica.com) that understand and support our ethos, 80 % of our sales are directly made to the final customer worldwide. This is the only way to keep healthy margins and pay all the artisans to the level of their work. This also enables us to know who our customers are, engage authentically with them, and hear all the feedback they have about our product and what we do. It also prevents us from over producing stock- we produce as we sell.
We regularly design capsules that up-cycle vintage and upholstery fabrics that are made in Morocco. We source everything locally; we often use dead-stock fabric for our collections. A large part of our work is the research we do with all our suppliers on the origin of the materials they use and their impact on the environment. All fabrics used for our ready to wear are pure natural fibers or semi-synthetic fibers of natural origin.