The Marjana Basket — Leather-Strap Moroccan Market Tote

Most straw baskets fail in the same place: where the handle meets the rim. The weave takes the whole weight of whatever you've loaded in, the palm splits under it, and one afternoon at the market the handle comes away.

This one is built to avoid that entirely. The straps don't stop at the rim — they run the full height of the basket, front and back, anchored by cross-stitched leather patches and carrying on beneath the base. The weight travels down the leather and through the bottom of the bag rather than tearing at the top edge. It's how a proper load-bearing basket is made, it costs more leather, and it's the difference between a basket that lasts a season and one that lasts a decade.

The rest is deliberately plain. No motif, no embroidery, nothing appliquéd. Just doum palm — the wild palm that grows across Morocco — cut, sun-dried until it pales to straw, split into ribbons and woven by hand in a tight herringbone, with two bands of colour running down it.

That plainness is the point. It's the basket you take to the market on Saturday and the beach on Sunday, that stands by the door holding shoes, that goes in the back of the car and stays there. Decorated baskets belong to an occasion. This one just gets used.

The straps are long enough for the shoulder, which matters once it's loaded — most traditional baskets are short-handled hand-carries, and a full market basket in the crook of your elbow gets old fast.

Seven colours: black, white, blue, orange, pink, red and green. The natural palm stays the same on all of them, so the leather does all the work — and a green-strapped basket reads completely differently from a red one, though it's the same object.

Three sizes, so pick by what you'll actually carry: small as a summer bag or a child's basket; medium for beach days and market mornings; large for a real shop, towels for two, or logs by the fireplace.

Open at the top and unlined — the traditional construction. It airs out after a damp swimsuit instead of staying wet.

Woven by hand in Marrakech. Weave density, exact dimensions and the depth of the leather colour vary a little from basket to basket.

Features & Specifications

• Material: Hand-woven doum palm straw (natural, undyed) with genuine leather straps
• Construction: Full-length leather straps running the height of the basket and beneath the base, anchored with cross-stitched reinforcement patches
• Handles: Shoulder-length leather straps
• Colors: Black, White, Blue, Orange, Pink, Red, Green
• Sizes: Small, Medium, Large 
• Closure: Open top, unlined — traditional construction
• 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. Small irregularities are the mark of hand-weaving, not defects.
• Care: Keep dry where you can; palm straw is naturally water-resistant but not waterproof. If it gets wet, air dry naturally away from direct heat. Dust with a dry brush. Store loosely stuffed to hold its shape rather than flattened. Condition the leather straps with a colorless neutral balm once a year — tinted products will mark the pale straw.
• A natural material note: Palm straw 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 $100 (EUR 100 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.