When Lara Stephenson began to dig around her family tree, it’s unlikely she expected an accessories range would come from it. But that’s exactly what led the designer to launch Ann & Arayata.
The label shares the middle names of Lara and her late mother Honorata. Its handbags are created using traditional techniques from the Philippines, Honorata’s birthplace. Filipino artisans carefully handcraft the purses from raffia taken from the country’s buri palm trees. They use old-fashioned wooden looms and weaving techniques passed down for hundreds of years before coloring the purses with water-based inks.
Lara Stephenson sees fashion as being bigger than good looks and functionality. She recently told Ecouterre that “Fashion is the promotion of ideas and awareness of a brand, so it’s important to create greater awareness for those in need in impoverished parts of the world.“
That’s a goal that Stephenson takes seriously. Her Ann & Arayata label helps artisans in regional areas earn a living wage, but its charity efforts go even further than that. The fashion house also donates at least 20% of all sales to L.I.F.E. for Health, a non-profit organization that Lara Stephenson’s mother founded in 1990. This charity helps improve the infrastructure, nutrition, and educational opportunities available for people in The Philippines and Rwanda.
While the handbags are selling well, Stephenson’s already making plans for the future. She hopes to release a line of scarves using the same sustainable material from her mother’s homeland.
