MITENDE: Plain Palm Beach Bag
Hit the beach with MITENDE, our brand-new beach basket for 2023 in stylish white. With leather handles and generous dimensions, this handwoven beach bag will be your summer companion whether you’re beaching or picnicking, heading off on a weekend break or popping out to do the shopping.
The weavers who produce these natural beach totes are almost all from farming communities, and live in a particularly arid part of South Eastern Kenya. While drought continues to make lives extremely challenging for farmers, palm leaf grows well in hostile conditions such as these.
Weaving and selling these roomy beach baskets gives families an alternative income that is ecologically sustainable, legal, and safe in a region where many may otherwise turn to poaching or deforestation to make ends meet. Taking pressure off their vulnerable ecosystem and becoming less reliant on farming is essential for these communities to sustain themselves. Basket weaving empowers women through work that is flexible, creative, and fairly paid, to support their families and to protect their environment for generations to come.
Material: PALM AND LEATHER HANDLES
Dimensions:
LARGE - 28cm W x 28cm H
JUMBO - 34cm W x 34cm H
If you need a specific size please let us know prior to placing your order.
Please note, as this is a handmade product, dimensions & colour may vary from those shown in the photographs.
HANDMADE IN KENYA
Our journey into sustainable style began in Kenya, and the lion’s share of our woven baskets are Kenyan-made. Whilst every region of Kenya boasts its own rich natural bounty, each cooperative we partner with offers expertise in its own unique form of basketry. Weaving, dyeing and grass-rolling techniques differ across the regions as much as basket shapes, patterns and structures. These precious crafts are woven through the generations within families - passed along continuous thread from mother to daughter - protecting and preserving an art form as old as man.
Vast and colourful, vibrant and bursting with natural beauty and style, our fair trade baskets are as eclectic as their homeland and its people. From sisal grass to doum palm, banana leaf fibres to palm leaf, each weaving cooperative works with what is locally available and only what can be sustainably sourced, to produce beautiful baskets which are 100% Kenyan made, and ethically produced. All cow hide bag tags, straps, and basket labels are made from leather sourced as a by-product of the food industry. Natural dyes come from pounded roots, bark and vegetables of the region, whilst all synthetic dyes are sustainably sourced.
From the Kamba tribe to the camel-herding Ariaal pastoralists of Northern Kenya, you can read more about the lives of the Kenyan weavers we work with - and the wonderful baskets they produce - below.
Meet The Artisans
Who Made Your Basket?
United KingdomStunning bag
What fast delivery and such a stunning beach bag! I love the size (J) which is ample for my towel, books and a drink. The quality is top notch and I adore the leather handles which add some wow to it!
The Basket Room
Thank you so much for your lovely review, we hope you enjoy using your new woven bag!
