INJECT MIELIE MAGIC THIS CHRISTMAS
Brand new ethical bag company comes to UK
As seen in High School Musical 3: Senior Year

November 2008 – If you are in need of inspiration for Christmas but are feeling the economic pinch like everyone else, what you need is a Mielie handbag. Brand new to the UK, Mielie handbags are already touted as the next big thing by costume designers and fashionistas thanks to their recycled, hand woven, off beat but eye popping boho looks - each one hand made by women of the South African townships with a detachable paper label signed by the weaver inside.

Already handpicked by the Costume Designer of HSM3; Senior Year movie for fashion forward Gabriella - Vanessa Hudgens, the Mielie handbag designs are beautiful, bright and bold fashion accessories – appealing to the young and older alike. The Mielie company and bags are the brainchild of Adri Schutz, a designer from Cape Town, and together they help provide the livelihood for some 50 people (mostly women) in Khayelitsha township who handcraft the products that Adri designs - using recycled materials and as little machinery as possible.

Since the business started in 2002, Mielie has enabled the staff to work from their homes in the greater Cape Town area, some of whom have health problems such as epilepsy. Working from home means that mothers can be with their children and transport costs are kept to a minimum. Everyone meets once a week to drop off completed products, check quality and receive new orders. To make the products, Mielie employs many age-old and time-consuming fibre-craft techniques, such as hooked rugging, crochet and knotting.

Says Adri “Living in South Africa, you can not help but be exposed to poverty on all levels. Looking around me, I had the idea of using handcrafts as a potential solution to some of this poverty. People here are so great at working with their hands and have the time to invest in creating desirable products for an international market. By launching Mielie, we have the ability to create an income, put food on the table and inspire people with what we produce. We also wanted to connect the person wearing the bag with the person who made it via our blog, http://fa.mielie.com. Every bag wearer is unique in the same way every weaver creates a unique bag.”

With only 500 bags made each month for worldwide distribution, Mielie handbags are much sought after. Bags are available through the handpicked UK distributor – Cape Gem – whose policy is only to buy accessories that are ethically produced.
Carol Lovell, founder of Cape Gem; “It is important to us to maintain our focus on the cape region of South Africa and its designers and employers. So many of the accessories bought today in the UK are sourced from developing countries where workers are paid meagre wages. All of our suppliers, where they employ local people, pay fair wages as a minimum.
Cape Gem aims to also plough back some of its profits going to Mielie to aid Mielie projects.

However we won’t be short changed on style. Our pieces must be eye popping, individual and cool - items that women would wear, at an affordable price. To see Vanessa Hudgens with a Mielie bag is a wonderful boost for the bags and all that they stand for.”.

This Christmas, Cape Gem has secured a large majority of Mielie bags for the UK market. New stocks will arrive in January but only 160 will be available for the Christmas rush. With prices from £18 for a pencil case up to £135 for a larger overnight bag, prices are affordable and accessible. The bags make the perfect gift in a tough economic climate where people still want to enjoy giving at Christmas but can’t and won’t overspend when they can least afford to. The fact that these bags give so much more than just pleasure to the recipient really makes them a present worth investing in. You will love your Mielie handbag. Get your bag online at www.capegem.co.uk.

So with the UK and the rest of the world’s appetite for the bags about to be whetted, the literal meaning of the word Mielie takes on even greater significance. Mielie is Afrikaans for the word corn and corn is the staple diet of most South Africans, and probably the first item on most of the weavers’ shopping list. The hooked rug products also feel like kernels on a corn cob. Once a week a team manager travels to the textile mills to collect the fabric strips that they use to make the Mielie products. Searching through, loading and sorting the piles of strips is a time consuming and heavy process but is an essential element in allowing the weaver to work their magic. Every weaver comes to the Mielie warehouse weekly with their work book which logs all the work completed and in progress and at the same time, will collect their new orders and fabric.

As well as providing an ethical wage for the workers, Mielie profits help ensure the welfare of their staff. 50% of Mielie costs on average - across all the bag types - are taken up in weavers’ wages.

They actually make very little profit themselves – with any profit ploughed back/reallocated into projects. Mielie's food garden in Khayelitsha is the perfect example of this – a new initiative to create an organic vegetable patch made by the Mielie crafters for the Mielie crafters to combat the soaring food prices. Mielie are also aiming to provide fire extinguishers for respected and reliable members of the Khayelitsha township community to help prevent fires spreading. It is not uncommon to hear of 800 homes going in a fire. The houses have no running water/taps and there are no roads for fire trucks to get through so this is something that is much needed. …

Love Your Mielie Bag.