Poufs&Pillows is a fair trade shop featuring ethically sourced, artisan made products of high quality natural materials. Our brand is a blend of culture and craftsmanship. Inspired by the beauty and elegance of Moroccan craftsmanship, our collections contain only carefully selected items handmade by talented Moroccan artisans, often with decades of experience. We have built close relationships with these artisans, which allows us to work with them to ensure that our goal is achieved. Our goal is to help the artisans ensure the survival of their cooperatives, and secure their livelihoods by accessing new markets all over the world. We do this by introducing our customers in Europe to new products from a different culture. With every purchase, we are able to provide our artisans with the stability of a fair income while maintaining traditional craftsmanship.
About us
On an inspiring trip to Morocco in 2018, our co-founders, Anas El Harras and Roel Buker, had the opportunity to visit multiple artisans and cooperatives. They met talented artisans who spent their lives making unique and remarkable products but lacked access to a larger platform and essential resources to exercise economic autonomy. With Anas’s Moroccan background and marketing knowledge and Roel’s experience in international business, Poufs&Pillows was born.
How it started
The idea was to establish direct contact with people we trusted, who shared our vision and our determination to make high quality products, but also cut out the middleman and get money directly into the hands of the artisans. Through our multiple trips to Morocco, we made sure to visit every cooperative personally, meet the people, talk to them, listen to their stories, feel the materials and the products and witness every step of the making process. We consider all the wonderful people working with us as a second family, through five years of working together, we shared our stories, achievements and deceptions, we learned so many things from them and we hope we have managed to improve their lives into the best.
‘We consider all the wonderful people working
with us as a second family.’
Our philosphy
We distinguish ourselves by the quality of our products, our creativity and our service. We innovate together with our cooperative not only in the field of efficiency, but also in the field of sustainability and of course the creation of new, one-of-a-kind items. Our role is to act as a bridge between our artisans and people that value authentic goods. Our artisans have years of experience and together with them we work on contemporary design to create a fusion between age-old tradition and modernity.
Crafts(wo)men in Morocco, but also in other parts of the world, struggle with the preservation of old techniques and traditions that are disappearing in a rapidly evolving industrialised world. Our goal is to help artisans ensure the survival of their cooperatives and secure their livelihoods by providing access to new markets around the world, as well as guidance and connections. We do this by introducing our customers in Europe to new products from a different culture. With every purchase, we are able to provide our artisans with the stability of a fair income while maintaining traditional craftsmanship. Behind every item there is a person, a story. Goods made by hand bear the character of their creator(s). This is what makes a handmade item unique. Our items are often worked on by hand for days, weeks or even months. We hope to inspire our customers to cherish these items and to show them off in their interior.
We see ourselves as much more than just a company, but as a family of like-minded, kind, talented and young people who love to collaborate and create nice things together. We truly enjoy what we do and the people we work with. Our team spirit, originality, and attention to detail are the basis of every product we design, build, and market.
The making of leather poufs
Moroccan leather poufs are an iconic feature of the Moroccan artisanat. The poufs are famous for their original embroidery, the magnificent shapes and their distinctive colours. But how are these Moroccan poufs made? We had the chance to be guided by our master artisan, Si Mohamed, through the whole journey of the crafting of a leather pouffe. Starting from the tanneries, where the leather is dried and tanned, until the last finishing retouching by the women artisans in our cooperative.
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