Did you Know? Interesting Fact about our Basket Products
At Montie & Joie, we care about fashion and looking good, but we primarily care about doing good. We don’t necessarily believe one is above the other, but we do believe they can, should, and even must go hand in hand to create a better world. This is true for all of our collections, but today, we want to give you further insights on why and how we’re doing good to look good with our basket products.
Our basket line has an impact on more lives than you imagine. Most of the artisan’s families greatly depend on the income created by their craft. In the weaving group that we support, there are approximately 1800 female artisans employed (as of June 2022). Their average family consists of 5.5 people. If you do your math right, that is an impact and reach of around 9,900 lives. It is estimated that 60% of the households involved are financially dependent on the female weavers. Supporting their craft is supporting their families.
As is tradition in many rural communities, crafts are passed down from generation to generation. Sisal basket weaving is a craft that has stood the test of time. It is not only a generational craft, but we have also worked to preserve it by supporting a collective that offers training for 12 different women groups to learn and significantly improve their weaving and production skills. By helping them in this way, we have helped the craft to not just stay alive, but to also improve greatly for better financial stability for the artisans.
Basket weavers have been perfecting and selling their crafts for hundreds of years. Sadly, they have not always been compensated with fair wages by their customers. We are striving to make a difference in this area for them. Fair wages are at the core of who we are at M&J, and we want to make sure that our artisans receive an honorable payment for their hard work. By pushing fair wages, we have helped reduce the poverty likelihood of artisan weaver families by 1.86% each year.
Do Good, Look Good