Our Artisans
By purchasing a pair of Fuchsia flats,
you can help small industry artisans create opportunity for themselves,
their families and their communities.
Meet Our Artisans
RAFIQ BAJWA
With over 25 years of experience, Rafiq not only oversees the shoe manufacturing but also mentors other artisans. He lives in Sangla along with his family.
SHAMSHAD AKHTER
Shamshad is married to Rafiq. She has around 20 years of experience and primarily does embroidery and stitching work on upper part of the ballet flats.
WAQAS
Waqas brings 25 years of experience to Fuchsia. He is primarily responsible for cutting the uppers and lower sole of the ballet flats.
JAMILA WAQAS
Jamila is a mother of two sons and two daughters. She is an embroidery artisans with 25 years of experience. She is our sole expert of specific kind of embroidery called ‘Tilla’ which you see in Fuchsia Black Swan ballet flats.
WAQAS BUTT
Waqas do leather cleaning once it is acquire from Faisalabad and brought into shop. He also works on shoe Insole. Waqas has 3 daughters and a son.
MANZOOR
Manzoor is our most experienced shoe stitcher guy. Previously a brick kiln worker and now a shoe maker with 18 years of experience on hand. He is a single parent and a father of four. Read his story here.
ASHIQ ALI
Aashique Ali started to learn the art of leather cutting at the age of 20 years. With 15 years of experience on hand now, Ali works on sizing and finishing of the leather ballet flats.
Re-Imagining the traditional craftsmanship
Our handmade small industry artisans are from Sangla Hill,
about 64 miles from Punjab’s largest city, Lahore.
Sangla Hill is a historical place where Alexander had his stay during his march towards central India, and has left the city with his souvenir: a well which still exits and is looked after by the government. The city still has very old building such as a temple which is visible when coming into the city from Faisalabad Road. Sangla Hill city is surrounded by many villages whose residents are Muslims, Christians and a little more minorities. These all people belong to any caste and religion are grace of Sangla city to enhance the brotherhood and mankind behaviour between them to form an exemplary nation. Most of these are the farmers from Sialkot. They migrated from district Sialkot in 1865 and after migration they took initiatives in eradication of jungles and made the land fit for agriculture. The city is surrounded by almost 109 villages. The city is the major market and economic hub of the area. (source: wiki)