When textile designer Alison Jones moved from New York to Mexico City for her husband’s job, she knew she had to start a company that helped to bring opportunity to talented local artisans that would otherwise not have access to selling their products to a larger international market. The resulting goods are nothing short of beautiful. At Alegria Home most of the items are designed in house, and then they are artisan produced.
The handwoven napkins might have to find their way to my dining room table, and I can’t get enough of the Otomi pillows. Alison also travels throughout Mexico and Guatemala to source handcrafted items like ombré pottery and vintage huipil pillows for their Mercado. To see the entire collection go to here.
Love the pom-poms and tassels on the linens!
Everything on their site is absolutely beautiful, but I wonder about the business practices of some of these high-end “fair trade” businesses. I have exactly the top middle pillow, which I bought in Guatemala a few years ago for whatever was the going rate for foreigners, which I’m sure was under $20. Even accounting for shipping, publicity, etc. the Alegria markup is so high that I have to wonder how much goes to the artisans and how much to the middleman. Also weird that they say on their website that they donate some of their profits to the artisans. Uh, wouldn’t that goal be accomplished by paying them well for their goods? Here are similar bags made from huipiles from the village of Todos Santos for 18 to 35 dollars, also on a site that claims to be fair trade: http://www.terraexperience.com/P_Bags_Purses_Todos_Santos_Guatemala.html. And here’s a site that sells spectacular Moroccan rugs, apparently direct from the artisan, for the same price that Alegria charges for a pillow: http://www.theanou.com/ I’m not assuming that any of these sites does anything wrong, just that it’s really hard to sort through the various claims and figure out who is on the up and up.
Hi Annie,
We appreciate your comments and would love to clear up some of your concerns! We agree that it can be hard to understand how transparent fair trade companies are. At Algeria Home we work with non profits such as Aid to Artisans and Nest which connect us with the artisans we work with. Not only are the artisans we work with paid a very fair wage but we also pay these non profits a commission to help us as our liaison. We also pay for any work the artisans do for us even if they turn that work in incorrectly. We pay for incorrect samples and any tests that they do for us. We also pay them for all their commuting costs when they have to come into a city to work with us. I hope some of these things can explain why our products are the price that they are. I’d be happy to answer any specific questions you have. Feel free to email us at [email protected]!
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