SAHEL makes fashion accessories with horsey roots. So we thought it would be fun to shoot them in an Equestrian style story, with fabulous clothes by Daniel Blake, Lowie, Wear the Walk, and boots by Celeris UK and Po-Zu. Here’s a peep behind the scenes. Watch this space for more videos of our products and…
Category: Videos
Traditional horse reins making for SAHEL fashion accessories
The Sahel has become synonymous with bad news lately – Islamist militants, kidnappings, drought. It is now too dangerous for us to visit our beloved reinsmakers there. With your support we will continue across cultures and continents to work and dream for a better future. Here’s a short video that shows how we are…
Christmas gift idea: SAHEL leather tassles
Fashionable, sustainable, purposeful and useful – as keyrings, bag charms or home decor – our leather tassles tick all the boxes this Christmas. We’ll be wrapping them up to go to customers far and wide – last Christmas posting date for international deliveries is 15th December for USA (for other countries check international tracking and…
SAHEL Design featured on Arise News
ARISE is a 24 hour, African facing news channel. Broadcasting from London, New York, Johanesburg and Lagos, it seeks ‘to champion the voices of emerging and frontier markets (and) to promote and celebrate all that is African and Afropolitan across all continents, engaging citizens of the world in the biggest stories of the day.’ Having…
Indigo Blues
Things didn’t go to plan on my last visit to Burkina Faso, where I’d intended to document the ancient technique of indigo dyeing. I found out that to follow the whole process I would need to spend several days, if not weeks, in a remote village where the dyeing takes place in pits dug…
Reins Wrap Clutch in summer colours
Since we introduced the reins wrap clutch two years ago, they continue to be one of our best sellers. The simple pouch style that wraps up with a tassled reins strap to secure it makes a unique evening clutch. Until now, they’ve only been available in bogolan prints, but this year we’re offering them in…
Fashion Revolution Day 2015
This Friday, 24th April, is Fashion Revolution Day. It is an annual event to commemorate the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh 2 years ago. Fashion Revolution is a campaign to change the fashion industry into a ‘force for good’, which means that clothes and accessories are made by people who are…
The reversible cotton hobo
Last week we posted about the reversible leather shopper with adjustable strap. This week we’ve got another reversible number for you. It’s made from hand woven cotton , with a hand woven leather shoulder strap. Like all SAHEL Design bags, the bag strap derives from a traditional West African horse harness – in this case…
The Reversible leather & bogolan shopper
‘It’s more important to be pretty on the inside’ is what we keep telling our 5 year old daughter. As for bags, it’s just as important, which is why we use hand-woven mudcloth dyed cotton to line many of our styles. But it felt a shame to keep the beautiful bogolan hidden away, so we’ve…
Moving on up
This summer we are undergoing a significant transition. I am leaving Burkina Faso and moving back to London, where I will carry on the business and work on finding retailers for SAHEL Design products in Europe and around the world. Here in Ouagadougou the business has been going well and sales of bags have rocketed….