KOUA STUDIO
Koua-Studio was founded in 2021 by Erika Alvarez in London during lockdown, which brought the climate and biodiversity crises into sharp focus, instilling a call to action to unite humanity for good for the studio’s founders.
Koua-Studio offers bespoke handmade textiles with a positive environmental and social impact. Focusing on creativity, innovation, technology and traditions, the company provides solutions for the fashion and interior design industry to make more responsible choices. Koua-Studio simplifies the collaborative process between Mexican artisans and designers, providing economic opportunities to indigenous people in Mexico in order to promote their cultural heritage and contribute to the preservation of traditional techniques and cultural traditions that have been passed down through many generations.
SUSTAINABILITY
Koua-Studio currently works with over 150 skilled artisans across different local communities in Mexico. Koua-Studio has developed three lines of textiles: Recycled, Organic and Deluxe; which are all hand-made using ancestral techniques.
SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY
Koua-Studio textiles are not just a piece of fabric - they are handmade, taking hours of work and years of knowledge and they are embodied in cultural heritage. The artisans create meaning through pattern and design, using it as a visual language to portray the way they see and understand the world which is defined as their ‘Cosmovision’.
This deep authenticity and unique heritage is deserving of preservation, respect, reciprocity and fair remuneration. Crediting the indigenous community which the textile belongs to is a way of connecting the consumer to the lives and stories of the craftspeople that produced them. It means creating jobs with a fair living wage that meet the artisans family and community needs and aspirations.
Their social values are focused on:
• Poverty reduction and job creation;
• Fair-trade; providing at least minimum wage salary; • Gender equality and female empowerment;
• Cultural preservation.