Second Row, Center: Owner, Harper Poe with a Proud Mary artisan in Mali
Photography by Olivia Rae James
Models: Duolan Li, co-owner of Xiao Bao Biscuit &
Nikki Brown, owner of Dellz Vibez, a juice bar,
both in Charleston South Carolina
Our Motto:
PRIDE NOT PITY. We want our goods to be seen as a celebration of the peoples and cultures that created them!
Proud Mary is a GLOBAL EXPLORATION OF TEXTILES. It all started in 2008 when owner, Harper Poe returned from volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in South America. After falling deeply in love with the indigenous peoples and brightly colored textiles she decided to combine her passions into a sustainable design business. Proud Mary works with global artisans in the developing world to create their line of 'ethnic-modern' home and personal accessories. By combining a modern design aesthetic with traditional methods of production Proud Mary bridges the gap between fair trade and on trend/fast fashion.
All of our fabrics are designed in house then produced in collaboration with textile artisans using traditional methods of weaving and printing. The products are then sewn by small sewing workshops using locally sourced materials as much as possible. Our artisans are paid a fair wage for their work and we are committed to establishing and maintaining a sustainable working relationship with them.
We are currently working in Mali, West Africa, Guatemala, Morocco, Peru, and Niger. Our artisan partners in Mali consist of two women's cooperatives; crochet and tie-dye and a men's social enterprise workshop that produces our mud cloth designs. In Guatemala we work with 3 weaving groups and two sewing workshops. In Peru, a small weaving village in a rural mountain region weaves the fabric for our Fringe Totes. In Morocco, we're working with a raffia producer in the coastal town of Essaouira to make our raffia shoes. Finally, in Agadez, Niger a group of Tuareg weavers create our stunning baskets.
Charleston, South Carolina