Vanhu Vamwe, co-founded by award-winning Pam Samasuwo-Nyawiri, launches its new handcrafted handbag collection  — Lionesses of Africa

After 6 years off the design scene developing a framework around ‘Care in Design’ and ‘Putting People First’, a PhD and two years of design development, Vanhu Vamwe is back!! The collection designed by co-founder Pam Samasuwo-Nyawiri, together with husband and co-founder Simba Nyawiri is ‘MACRAME LUXE ON WHEELS’. The Multi Award Winning Brand has combined its love for storytelling, traditional craftsmanship and community to bring for the first time ‘A Made In Zimbabwe’, 100% Handcrafted Collection. During a pandemic, with impossibilities all round, Vanhu Vamwe established the first Macrame Community in Zimbabwe, bringing permanent employment, healing livelihoods and bringing hope to many families. 

The new Vanhu Vamwe collection, Dreamers & Travellers consists of 9 expressive handbags made from 100% recycled paracord, which is made from 100% recycled plastic PET and architectural wire frames from recycled metals, in a beautiful collaboration between Macrame weavers and some of Zimbabwe’s finest wire Artists. The collection draws inspiration from sentiments of nostalgia, a longing for a place called home that no longer exists but stays ‘lodged’ in memory. The collection tells the many stories of those who have felt loss, those who have not ‘belonged’, losing identities as they travelled through the passageways of winds, away from spaces familiar. The detailed tassels, a key feature within the collection represents the roots that never stop nurturing, the intimacy afforded by new friendships in unfamiliar spaces. 

Vanhu Vamwe was co-founded by Zimbabwean born Pam Samasuwo-Nyawiri and her husband Simba Nyawiri. Both with a creative flair and a love for design and community, they set out to collectively understand global design. Pam then jumped ship from a career in journalism and went back to university to study ‘Fashion Accessory Design’, specialising in leather luxury goods, further progressing to do a PhD to explore and create a framework around ‘Care in Design’ supported by a theory of ‘Putting People First’. This was particularly structured for Design Practitioners working with rural artisans in marginalised communities. To date, Vanhu Vamwe designers are Multi Award Winners, with internationally acclaimed awards and recognition, speaking on many platforms on issues of sustainability, social innovation and exit strategies in artisan communities. 

To find out more about the new Dreamers and Travellers collection and the work of Vanhu Vamwe, visit the website https://www.vanhuvamwe.com 

Photo credits: Extreme Photography