Behind the Stitch: Meet the Women Who Make CHAÏA

Every piece at CHAÏA begins not with a sketch, but with a conversation. A conversation between our founder Chaya Mobasser and the women who have been practicing their craft for decades — in coastal Brazilian villages, in artisan workshops in India, in homes where the art of making passes from mother to daughter to granddaughter.

We believe you deserve to know who made your clothes.

The Artisan Cooperatives of Brazil

Along the coast of Brazil, from the urban energy of Rio de Janeiro to the remote paradise of Trancoso and the vibrant streets of Bahia, there are communities of women who crochet. Not as a hobby. As a livelihood, a legacy, and a form of expression that has survived modernization precisely because it cannot be automated.

The crochet techniques used in our Brazil Collection include filet crochet — a centuries-old grid-based technique that creates intricate open-weave patterns — as well as granny squares and the pineapple stitch, each with its own regional variation and cultural history.

These artisans work at their own pace, in their own homes or shared cooperative spaces. They are not factory workers. They are craftswomen who choose the projects they take on, who set their own hours, and who are paid fairly and directly for every piece they complete.

The Adda Masters of India

Our beaded bags come from a different tradition — the Adda embroidery workshops of India, where artisans stretch fabric over wooden frames and hand-place thousands of individual beads to create patterns of extraordinary precision and beauty.

Adda embroidery is a skill that takes years to develop. The workshops where CHAÏA's bags are made employ artisans who have spent their careers mastering this technique — understanding how light moves through different bead types, how to create depth with layered color, how to execute a design that will hold its structure through years of use.

A single CHAÏA beaded bag can contain five thousand beads or more, each one placed by hand. The process for one bag takes days.

What Fair Trade Means to Us

CHAÏA pays artisans directly and at rates well above local minimums. We do not use middlemen who extract value from the supply chain without contributing to it. Every dollar you spend on a CHAÏA piece travels, in meaningful proportion, to the hands that made it.

We also believe in transparency. Slow fashion is not just about the pace of production — it is about honesty in the relationship between maker and buyer. When you invest in a CHAÏA garment, you are supporting a specific community, a specific tradition, and a specific person's ability to sustain their craft.

Why Handmade Matters in 2026

In a market saturated with fast fashion — garments produced in days, worn once, discarded — the choice to buy handmade is a political act as much as an aesthetic one. It says: I value the time it takes to make something well. I value the human being whose hands shaped this. I am willing to wait.

CHAÏA pieces are not always in stock. Some designs sell out and are not restocked quickly, because the artisans who make them are making other things too. This is not a supply chain failure. It is the natural rhythm of slow production — and it is what makes each piece genuinely rare.

Meet Your Maker

We are working on ways to connect you more directly with the artisans behind your CHAÏA pieces. In the meantime, explore our full collections — Brazil Collection and Beaded Bags — knowing that behind every stitch and every bead is a person whose skill you are honoring with your purchase.