9 Up-and-Coming Brands That Support Female Artisans

On the surface, there is a tension between luxury and sustainability. Sustainability, at its core, is about equity—equity in access to natural resources, respect for every element of the supply chain, and engagement that lasts because we can survive in the long run only with balance. If you know anything about climate change, you know that it affects marginalized communities the most severely. Luxury, on the other hand, is often defined by rarity, with value linked to scarcity of resources, high price points, and lack of access (in branding at least) except for an elite few. But what if it isn’t? There’s a strong argument to be made that luxury is really about process, how something is made, the stories within it, and, ultimately, expertise and ritual in craftsmanship. A brand name may be shorthand for value, but it means nothing if the product itself isn’t made with care and intimacy of precision.

Enter a new generation of designers who are fusing luxury and sustainable development practices—and, in particular, are working with female artisans. These creatives are experimenting with artisan partnerships that rebalance power structures and bring the focus back on how clothes, accessories, and home goods are made. Take Viennese-Nigerian ready-to-wear designer Kenneth Ize, who started his own aso oke factory in Ilorin in west Nigeria to preserve the increasingly rare craft and lift up the female weavers who loom his fabrics, or Aurora James, the designer behind the 15 Percent Pledge, who works with female artisans in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia on her signature Burkina Slides and other products for Brother Vellies. As Mairin Wilson, director of regenerative practices at L.A.-based brand Christy Dawn, comments, “We can have the brand win. We can have the natural dyer in India win. We can have the farmer win. We can have the soil win. Everyone can win. We just have to rethink the system and rethink these relationships.”

In growing these artisanal collaborations, designers are preserving dying crafts and experimenting with new ones. They’re bringing visibility back to supply chains. They are forming bilateral relationships with female artisans that have long-term impact. And they are defining a relation to clothing and other products that is not based solely in status or acquisition, but rather identity and the story between you and the garment.

Here are the designers who are fostering long-term partnerships with female artisans—in communities from Colombia to Cape Town.