Green Cotton

“Proud Mary” was born in 2006 in the heads of two young women who met in Brooklyn as a vision of fair trade, chic fashin. Molly was trying to find a way to utilize her liberal arts education and Harper wanted to see her fair trade and fashion ideas come to fruition.

The women soon found a way to reach both these goals by working alongside different artisan cooperatives on a trip to  Guatemala. The goods produced are designed as a collaboration between the two Brooklynites and artisans in Guatemala. This has resulted in products that are both modern, eco-chic, and high quality with just enough touches of traditional weaving patterns to make them feel truly Guatemalan, an aesthetic Proud Mary refers to as “Ethnic Modern.”

Proud Mary sells three product lines called “Diamante,” “Raya,” and “El Sol.” Through all their partnerships, Proud Mary ensures workers receive double the average compensation for consistent work, and have been able to connect a number of artisans to the micro-finance loan group, Nest.

Diamente is an artisan group based in Guatemala City who are known as the most accomplished foot loom weavers, and who have pioneered many types of brocade weaving.

This wonderful tote with gold straps in the “Diamante” style uses traditional Latin American designs.  Woven on a foot-loom. Available at Proud Mary.

Raya are a group of Cakchiquel-speaking Mayans living in the San Antonio Palopo region of Guatemala. They use traditional weaving techniques over a thousand years old to create belts, hair bands, and friendship bracelets on narrow looms called “telar de palitos,” as well as backstrap looms.

El Sol uses ikat fabric crafted by a master weaver from Totonicapan. This process involves a special dying technique, and then placing the fabric in the warp of a loom to produce unique patterns and images.

This pillow illustrates the design used for all products in the “El Sol” collection, a pattern created as a mistake originally but which has become highly demanded.  Find this and more from the El Sol collection on Proud Mary’s website.

Green Cotton applauds the goals and accomplishments of Proud Mary and we hope to see even more in the future. Check out their collections on their website.