A many-handed artwork
This patchwork is just like the many women who crocheted it.
More than 30 women from all cultural and social backgrounds, beginners or experts, each made a part to achieve together this patchwork crocheted with recycled plastic bags.
Some gathered in the reception centre of their neighbourhood, other mailed theirpatch and for several of them it was their very first crochet lesson.
Exhibited in November 2011, during the European Waste Reduction Week, it provesthat one can make wonderful items out of things fit for the bin and that practicing crochet creates social link, by promoting handmade know-how.
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YVES SAINT LAURENT ‘MUSE TWO ARTISANAL RECYCLED’ BAG
Produced in a limited edition of sixty, with each piece unique, the ‘Muse Two Artisanal Recycled’ bag marries the savoir-faire of Yves Saint Laurent leather goods with the artisanal handiwork of women from Burkina Faso. The women of the Gafreh Association, with support from ‘Les Filles du Facteur’ – a non-profit organization that aims to realize, promote and sustain the social, cultural and artistic values akin to women and children who face difficulty around the world – have developed a unique technique to create a textile composed of recycled plastic bags and woven cotton, which, procured at fair trade exclusively by Yves Saint Laurent, has been fashioned into an edition of the house’s iconic ‘Muse Two’ bag.
With this Yves Saint Laurent further emphasizes its commitment to innovation in design and particularly to corporate social responsibility, demonstrated in the initiative’s alliance with a non-profit women’s organization and its use of recycled materials. Along with Creative Director Stefano Pilati’s annual ‘Edition New Vintage’, an environmentally conscious capsule of ready-to-wear and accessories, and the house’s ongoing support of UN Women, The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, a clear program of support emerges for public awareness of sustainable development and design on the one hand, and critical women’s issues on the other.
The limited edition ‘Muse Two Artisanal Recycled’ will be available online at ysl.com in The United Kingdom and The United States from April, 2011 and selected Yves Saint Laurent flagship boutiques worldwide.
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On January 2011, while Julia and the women from Burkina who make crochet, continue to fulfill the orders; the items made by black recycle plastic bags. Here, in France, we make the garlands of flowers in colorful plastic for the decoration of the shops’ windows “BONPOINT” around the world.
Those flowers are the efforts of the women from many countries such as Adama (Guinea), Nikolinka (Bulgarie), Genica (Bulgaria) et Tatiana (Lithuania).
September 2010 : items made of recycle plastic bags hooked from women in Burkina Faso are now on sales in the MERCI shop under UP RECYCLING label.
It's going on. The production rise. The french company Voyageurs du Monde made a new pocket order for its clients. Burkina Faso Women have started to work on it to make it into thousands.
In september, agent Equité shows on Maison & Objet exhibition, the hooked objects from our new collection. The NGO Filles du Facteur opens a new branch based in Ouagadougou. They called it FIDUFASO.
Monoprix has ordered a collection of accessories made from recycled plastic bags from Filles du Facteur to go on sale in Spring 2010. They are currently being crocheted by women in associations in Burkina Faso and Guinée.
Plasticbagrecycling
Ginbriscus, the African drink recreated by Filles du facteur, has been on sale since June 2009 in 75cl bottles. Made from organic ingredients, it is awaiting certification and production in smaller 25cl bottles. The 75cl bottles sell for 6 euros.
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Clonette, originating from Africa, this plastic doll is sold in aid of underpriviledged children in Africa. The black clonette, made from recycled plastic is our association’s mascot and used as a factor of comminication.
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PLASTIC BAG RECYCLING
In France, the association works with women from a community social integration workshop in the suburbs of Paris at Viry-Châtillon (La Grande Borne).
In Africa, a first workshop has been set up in the village of Tiébélé in Burkina-Faso.
Women are taught crochet techniques then household articles and fashion accessories commissioned to be sold via the Facteur Céleste fashion distribution network.
Plastic bags collected in France come in a wide variety of colours, whilst in Africa, the majority of plastic bags are black, the colour of recycled plastic.
GINBRISCUS
A naturel home-made energy drink, it was tested for three years at the Facteur Céleste boutique café and unanimously appreciated. Created by mixing two traditional African drinks, ginger and hibiscus, made by women in West Africa for celebrations and traditionally drunk seperately.
It is currently produced on a cottage industry scale by MamaBissa, a company that socially integrates African women, at Mantes-la-Jolie (78), in the Paris suburbs.
Ginbriscus is made from organic ingredients and organic certification is underway.
Our long-term aim is for the drink to be produced in Africa, by African women in accordance with fairtrade and sustainable organic agriculture norms.
THE CLONETTE
The pastic doll, known as Clonette, originated in the colonial era and is made in Ghana. It was the first industrially produced African doll and can still be found on markets to this day.
Thanks to Filles du Facteur it exists in black since 2006; the colour of recycled plastic.
A proportion of the income generated by the sale of these dolls is donated to institutions that help orphans and vulnerable children. Filles du Facteur has established priviledged working relations in Ghana with OrphanAid Africa who work to prevent the abandoning of children by their families.
www.oafrica.org
the association’s goal
The association’s goal is to help women in difficulty, with priority being given to immigrant women in France and women in rural areas of Africa.
We aim to help them help themselves by providing them with work so they can achieve financial independence and access to health and education
about Filles du Facteur
The Filles du Facteur, a non-profit organization, was founded in 2008 by Delphine Kohler, accompanied by a group of women friends, to perpetuate the Facteur Céleste brand philosophy and help women well beyond frontiers.
Goods are designed and produced in accordance with the causes she champions : the importance of protecting a certain “handmade” know-how, cross culture and the recycling of materials.
In 2000, the unique and colourful Facteur Céleste lifestyle boutique opened in Paris. For 7 years, it brought together under one roof young Fairtrade designers, the first baby café in the capital and crochet and creative workshops using recycled materials, for adults and children. The « carnavals-récup » concept originated from these workshops.
The seeds for the association were sown here, where, from meeting place for like-minded people, the place became a refuge for those sharing sympathy for the same causes.
In 2007, Delphine Kohler became nomadic and embarked on a series of bridge-building projects linking women from France with those from there.
Delphine Kohler had a Nubian vault mud house built in Burkina Faso and set up a workshop with the women of “her” village to crochet recycled plastic bags.
the Facteur Céleste site
