Mjita Trading Company was established in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1996 by Brett Sher. The company sources traditionally woven, handmade fabrics from several African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their team of operators is led by women quality-control managers, who oversee the production of goods. Staff also receive in-house skills training — part of Mjita’s vision for empowering African women.

Many artisans have little opportunity to market their products. Lucia’s Imports partners with Guatemalan families, artisan groups and cooperatives to produce and export handmade crafts. Macario is a skilled weaver who works with Lucia’s Imports. He was unable to attend school as a child because of his socio-economic status. Through this partnership, he has been able to send all four of his own children to school, and two have now attended university.

Inspired by her grandmother in Kolkata, India, Harshita Lohia took to art at an early age, moving from India to the United States to pursue a fine arts education. She created Harshita Designs to share her heritage with the world through wearable art inspired by nature, Indian cultural symbols and more. Harshita Designs employs artisans living in impoverished communities in India, creating opportunities for them to combat income inequality.

Husband and wife team Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam have been producing textiles in their batik studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, since 1985. They draw on the traditions of Ismoyo’s ancestors — batik makers in the court city of Solo in Java — to explore the richness of historical batiks as contemporary art. Their studio produces fine-art batik fabrics and paintings along with a range of wearable art and interior decor.

Masako Oguro’s deep appreciation of Japan’s textile treasures comes from her mother, a classical Japanese dance instructor and kimono enthusiast. In her art practice, Oguro takes damaged silk “shibori” kimono and jackets and transforms them into stylish garments. Shibori is a labor-intensive Japanese tie-dye method that has been practiced for centuries and is given new life today in accessories, home goods and fashion.

Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez is an Indigenous Quechua weaver from Chinchero, a village in the Cusco region of Peru. She began researching and reviving local textile practices in the late 1970s and founded the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco with fellow weavers in 1996. The fair-trade nonprofit works with ten local weaving communities to sustain local traditions and promote weavers and their work.

Aziz Murtazaev is an ikat master from Margilan, Uzbekistan, a city with an illustrious history of silk production. In 2016, he founded Crafts Studio IkatUz, a cooperative of independent weavers and dyers. Making ikat is a community endeavor that often requires dozens of steps. Murtazaev’s studio employs a large team of masters, weavers and other specialists — creating opportunities for these artisans to introduce products to new markets.