La Sculpture is a sculptural beaded basket bag - woven banana leaf and raffia, handles wrapped by hand, a row of beadwork across the front, a line of leather at the edge. Fatima and the women of the atelier build each one slowly, here in Guéliz, and it moves with you from the medina to the sea to a late dinner.
Where it comes from
YZA grew up on one street in Guéliz, where my family has worked for three generations - our atelier sits beside my father's Rotisserie de la Paix, and I learned this neighbourhood before I learned anything else. We are small, and we are run entirely by women, weaving bags and resort pieces by hand. La Sculpture holds all of that in one object: the raffia, the colour, the hours. We don't buy it in and put our name on it - we make it here, slowly, the way we know how.
You know it from across the room
The handles wrapped by hand, the woven body that keeps its shape, the steady rhythm of beads across the front, the line of leather at the edge - that is the form Fatima and the women build, and you read it from across a room before you read a label. One basket takes roughly 48 hours of work spread over about six days. The small irregularities are the hand at work, not a fault in it - perfectly imperfect, every time.
Three sizes, for the days you have
We make La Sculpture in three sizes because no two days carry the same weight. XS for an evening - a key, a phone, a lipstick. S for the everyday - the city, the errands, the long lunch that turns into dinner. M for the road - travel, the market, the beach, the days you carry a little more than you planned. Same sculptural form, same hands; only the room inside changes.
Why we love it most
If one piece had to stand for the whole atelier, it would be this one - the raffia, the colour, the women's handwork, the natural materials, all gathered into a single thing you can hold in two hands. It also keeps good company. Hook on a fruit charm, or wear a pair of raffia fruit earrings - each one hand-crocheted by Fatima - and the bag turns playful in a second, without trying.
How we wear La Sculpture
Carry Hot Red against a white or black Jawhara piece and let the colour do the talking. Reach for Black Olive on the quieter, more city days, when you want the form and not the noise. Take Deep Violet when you feel like a little more. Hook on a fruit charm for play, or leave it bare and let the shape say it. Colour is culture; craft is language. ⵣ
Carry a piece of Marrakech
Carry a piece of Marrakech. Shop the piece in this story, or come to the Guéliz atelier at 66 rue Yougoslavie - open 12 - 8pm, closed Tuesdays - and hold the weave, the beadwork and the wrapped handles in your own hands.
Shop the story
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FAQ
XS for an evening and the essentials, S for the everyday, M for travel, the market and the beach. Same sculptural form in each - choose by the weight of the day, not the look.
No. The raffia reads summery, but in Black Olive - or paired with a dark Jawhara piece for dinner - the sculptural form carries right through the year. We wear it in every season.
Roughly 48 hours of handwork over about six days - weaving the banana leaf and raffia into the form, setting the beads in their rhythm, wrapping the handles and finishing the leather edge by hand. The goal isn't speed; it's intention.
