Limaia Paris

Limaia is a unique fashion brand that specializes in handmade creations crafted with care by a team of around eighty skilled women in Madagascar. Founded in 2019, the company has quickly made a name for itself in the industry with its commitment to quality, sustainability, and social responsibility.

Since its inception, Limaia has sought to empower women in Madagascar by providing them with an opportunity to improve their standard of living through meaningful employment. The brand recognizes that many women in Madagascar face significant barriers to economic opportunity, including limited access to education, financial resources, and formal employment. By offering a path to employment through the creation of handmade fashion items, Limaia is helping to break down some of these barriers and create new opportunities for women in the country.

Limaia Paris uses raffia, which is considered a sustainable material for several reasons. Firstly, it is a renewable resource, as the raffia palm trees can be harvested for their leaves without killing the tree, and new leaves will grow to replace them. This makes raffia an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic materials.

Secondly, raffia is biodegradable, meaning that it will break down naturally over time and not contribute to landfill waste. This is in contrast to many synthetic materials that can take hundreds of years to decompose and can have a significant impact on the environment.

Thirdly, the production of raffia products in Madagascar and other parts of Africa is often done using traditional techniques that have been passed down through generations. This means that the artisans who create these products are using sustainable practices that are in harmony with the environment and help to preserve local cultural traditions.

The Limaia Association is a program committed to supporting women in Madagascar who are facing challenging situations, particularly in where many women are struggling to make ends meet. Unfortunately, due to their circumstances, these women often find themselves in precarious situations, which can include homelessness and a lack of access to decent job opportunities.

For women in these situations, the burden of responsibility can be especially heavy as they often have to provide for their families as well as themselves. This can be an incredibly challenging situation to overcome, and the Limaia association recognizes this difficulty.

As such, the primary objective of The Limaia Association was to establish a craft school, providing these women with a unique opportunity to learn valuable skills that they can use to support themselves and their families.