BRAND SPOTLIGHT: THE BASKET ROOM
The Basket Room is a brand raising the standards for local communities across Africa, sharing their stories and providing them with the recognition, pay and working conditions they deserve, and in return they share their ancient talents and gifts for basket weaving with us all.
It’s a special thing to have something that has been handwoven by someone all the way in Africa. To know that each piece is woven from materials indigenous to the land it was made, and carries the history and the spirit of its maker. However, the industry is sadly failing the talented people making these works of art. When fashion design graduate Holly McMullen was on a road trip to Nairobi, South Africa she saw this first hand. It had a big impact on her, and she left wanting to create a new pathway for the weavers in Africa. On returning to the UK she joined forces with fellow art college graduate, Camilla Sutton and together they founded The Basket Room, an ethical company that worked directly with the weavers, highlighting their unique talents, and providing them with fair pay and dignified working conditions.
Basket weaving is a precious and ancient craft that has been used for millennia, with the skills being passed on through generations within families. Locally sourced, natural fibres have been wound and plaited together to create vessels for trading, storing or transporting goods. Over time, each country and community developed its own methods and styles of basket weaving. The Basket Room’s eclectic collection reflects the unique character arising from different regions with their products coming from communities in Kenya, Ghana, Eswatini, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Even each individual piece has its own story, with one weaver working exclusively and meticulously on just one piece over a number of days, carrying it with them in their daily lives from home to farm to field. This enables the weavers to fulfil their other roles, jobs and responsibilities whilst also earning a second income, something with is invaluable to the people living in these communities. It’s how many women pay for their children to go to school, or communities use the proceeds to drill boreholes.
The life force behind the basket room are the weavers. They are largely women but also men in some communities. They are known to bring their sheer spirit and raw talent to create the products. Over the years Holly and Camilla have been lucky enough to build connections with the most remarkable artisans and networks of weaving cooperatives across Africa, regularly spending time with them and getting to know the basket weaving process, from harvesting the raw materials to dyeing and weaving the products.
The fairtrade products of The Basket Room are colourful, vibrant and eclectic, bursting with the natural beauty and style of the people who made them and their homeland.
Each weaving community works only with the raw materials locally available to them and can be sustainably sourced. This can be anything from doum palm to sisal grass, palm leaf to banana leaf fibres, depending on the region.
The dyes used are naturally made from pounded roots, bark, leaves and vegetables indigenous to the region, whilst all synthetic dyes are sustainably sourced. The production of all bag tags, straps and basket labels is made from leather sourced as a by-product from the food industry.
And if you check the tag inside the basket or woven product you have bought it will be personally signed by the person who put their love, care and talent into their very own work of art before it becomes yours.
