Beautifully Inefficient

When I started Purse & Clutch back in 2011, I wasn’t thinking about being an “ethical shopper.”

I knew I wanted to do work that felt meaningful, but I still made quick purchases at big box stores without giving it a second thought. I didn’t read labels. I didn’t ask who made what I was buying.

But over the years, something shifted.

As I worked directly with artisan groups around the world, as I saw what happened when we paid living wages & honored traditional skills. 

I started to change. 

Slowly, my shopping habits followed. I’d reach for the cheaper option & pause. I’d ask myself: Do I really want this if I don’t know who made it or how they were treated?

And then I couldn’t unsee it.

I couldn’t keep building one part of my life around intention & justice, while shopping the other part in a way that undermined it.

The first time I visited our artisan partners in Ethiopia in 2016, the shift that had been slowly forming in me caught fire.

There’s something about sitting in the workshop and sharing tea with the men & women who make the bags. About seeing each stitch done by hand, each brass closure hammered into place.

It’s slow.

It’s focused.

And it’s deeply human.

In a world that prizes fast & cheap, this was something else entirely.
Rooted. Patient. Beautifully inefficient in all the right ways.

I remember coming home after that  trip, walking through a store & feeling overwhelmed.

I saw all the things I used to buy without thinking & felt their weight in a new way. 

Not guilt, exactly, but clarity.

I didn’t want to shop the same way anymore.

That trip didn’t just change my business. 

It changed me.

This September, I’m going back to Ethiopia & I’m inviting a small group to come with me.

This is more than a behind-the-scenes tour, though yes, you’ll meet the artisans, visit the workshop, & see the bags come to life!

It’s a chance to step into the story.

To get closer to the hands, the process & the people behind what we buy.

If you’ve been craving a deeper connection to your values, your work, or just the way you move through the world, this is for you.

Come to Ethiopia not as a tourist, but as a witness.

Come ready to be changed.

Send me an email if you’re feeling that tug to join us & I’ll send you the details!