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.

Ships from our warehouse in Marrakech with DHL or FedEx. Free over $150 (EUR 150 in Europe). Five to eight business days to Europe, the UK, the USA and Canada; seven to fourteen to Australia and New Zealand. Thirty days to change your mind.

Cut and stitched by hand in our Marrakech workshop. Because every hide is different, no two pieces are identical.