The Essaouira Tote — Leather-Trimmed Reed Basket Bag

Turn this basket over and look at the bottom corners. There's a leather cap stitched onto each one.

That's the detail worth paying for, and almost nobody includes it. Corners are where a basket dies — every time you set it down on a pavement, a tiled floor, a car boot, the weight lands on four small points and the fibre abrades. A year of that and the corners fray, then split, then the basket is finished. Four pieces of leather, hand-stitched in white thread, and the problem disappears.

Then there's the rim. Not a strip glued over the top edge but a rolled leather binding, wrapped around the entire opening and saddle-stitched through — the technique a saddler uses on a bridle, where the stitching is visible because it's meant to be seen and because it's stronger than anything hidden. A basket's rim takes the stress every time it's loaded, lifted or set down. This one is sheathed in leather.

The handles are leather too, on riveted shield-shaped tabs. Three separate pieces of leather doing three separate structural jobs.

The shape is doing something specific. This is built square with a flat base — it stands up on its own, empty, and holds that shape. It doesn't slump, which means it doesn't look like a beach bag. Set it on a desk, a kitchen counter or a restaurant floor and it reads as a structured handbag that happens to be woven.

Which is why this is the one basket we'd call year-round. It carries a laptop and a notebook as comfortably as a market shop. It works in October.

The weave itself is natural reed — flat, broad strands in a dense vertical pattern that's noticeably tighter and more structural than the soft palm herringbone of our beach baskets. It's a different fibre doing a different job.

Three sizes: small as a day bag; medium for work, market or travel; large for a real shop or a weekend's worth of things.

Woven and stitched by hand in Marrakech. Weave density, exact dimensions and the tone of the leather vary from basket to basket.

Features & Specifications

• Material: Hand-woven natural reed with genuine leather trim, handles and corner protectors
• Construction: Rolled leather rim binding, hand-saddle-stitched in contrast thread; leather handles on riveted shield tabs; leather corner caps on all four base corners
• Structure: Square-built with a flat base — stands upright and holds shape when empty
• Sizes: Small, Medium and Large
• Closure: Open top
• Handmade: 100% handcrafted in Marrakech, Morocco. Ships direct from our workshop.
• One of a kind: Weave density, exact dimensions and leather tone vary between baskets.
• Care: Keep dry where you can; natural reed is water-resistant but not waterproof. If it gets wet, air dry naturally away from direct heat. Dust with a dry brush. Condition the leather with a colorless neutral balm once a year — tinted products will mark the pale reed. Store upright rather than flattened.
• A note on the material: Natural reed may shed a few fibers when new. This settles within the first weeks.

Expédié de notre entrepôt de Marrakech avec DHL ou FedEx. Livraison gratuite à partir de 100 $ (100 € en Europe). Cinq à huit jours ouvrables vers l'Europe, le Royaume-Uni, les États-Unis et le Canada ; sept à quatorze jours vers l'Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande. Trente jours pour changer d'avis.

Coupé et cousu à la main dans notre atelier de Marrakech. Chaque peau étant différente, aucune pièce n'est identique.