As the month of March comes to a close, the month that celebrates women, we wanted to talk about sisterhood. ‘Tatreez’ or embroidery, in particular Palestinian embroidery, was always considered a woman’s art. We at Taita Leila are grateful to our grandmothers who have inspired us to protect this tradition, and we respect those who work very hard to produce it. We believe that our mission as a brand is not about preserving heritage for heritage’s sake, but to inspire, revive and recreate this art. We want to encourage more innovation, more creativity, more interesting design in the region as a whole. As a company that prides itself on being a sisterhood, we want to see diversity and inclusion, even...
We are very pleased to announce that we are one of the feature brands in the new online store from Kerning Cultures. Kerning Cultures is a podcast challenging the narratives and stereotypes of the Middle East (available on iTunes). KC 'believes in the power of audio storytelling', and though their medium is a little different to ours, we are proud to be telling stories with them. Other incredible brands that are featured include Melting Pots, turning kitchen utensils into a multicultural exchange, THIS Toothbrush reviving an ancient natural toothbrush called the miswak, which has been used for centuries in Islamic communities and has been shown to be beneficial for dental hygiene, and Sitti Soap, a social enterprise providing fair-wage employment opportunities to skilled women refugees at...
Boston, we're back!
The Boston Palestine Film Festival is bringing Palestinian embroidery to the forefront this year, closing with Carol Mansour's movie Stitching Palestine, a panel discussion featuring the director, producer Muna Khalidi, and Wafa Ghnaim of Tatreez and Tea, and a stunning and extensive exhibition featuring some of our pieces! Get tickets to the event here.
Check out this blog post where we spoke about what embroidery means to us, and our upcoming plans!
Have you heard the news?
Taita Leila is now part of the Switchers community! We're so proud to be part of a group of green entrepreneurs and changemakers in the Mediterranean region, where entrepreneurs of a similar passion for the environment and society can meet.
Switchers are individuals, enterprises or civil society organizations implementing innovative and ecological solutions that contribute to sustainable and fair consumption and production models, and we are so glad to be a part of this tribe!
We loved speaking to Hilary Duff, she perfectly captured what we're about in this interview.
Switch on!
Camilla Caraccio really captured our essence in our favourite article to date in Inc Arabia. Included are some gems like:
“When a culture is under threat, such as in Palestine, where cultural appropriation is the norm, not the exception, it’s natural that a society would want to preserve its traditions just the way they were, in what it believes is an attempt to stay ‘alive...which unfortunately kills it faster. You have to keep moving!”
