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Petel founders Julie and Ibrahima Wagne show his great-grandmother’s blanket at home in San Francisco.

In the 650-square-foot San Francisco apartment of Julie and Ibrahima Wagne, bright prisms of light pierce the front bay window and illuminate the small living area, where stacks of African textiles sit on top of a midcentury Danish console.

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Julie reaches for a blanket and unfolds it, revealing bright orange stripes, the color of a clementine. “Feel this cotton,” she says, holding out the fabric. “It’s cold to the touch. That’s how you know it’s hand-spun. It doesn’t get any softer than this.”

For Julie, the blanket carries as much sentiment as it does beauty. A gift of her mother-in-law, who lives in Mauritania — the West African country where Julie served in the Peace Corps almost 16 years ago and met Ibrahima — it was her first introduction to an African art form that inspired the couple’s business, Petel.

“She gave this to me when we got engaged, a symbol that she approved of our marriage,” says Julie, wrapping the blanket around her waist to demonstrate how African women wear them. “These blankets are a language in my husband’s culture. They take a month to weave and are considered treasures. The women wear them on their wedding day, carry their babies in them, and pass them from one generation to the next.”

Sadly, the craft of hand weaving isn’t expected to last in Boghé, the village on the Senegal River where Ibrahima grew up watching men hand-spin cotton.

“This has always been an art form for the men, but the master weavers were no longer teaching their sons,” says Julie. “It was too laborious. My husband and I wanted to do something to make a difference in these weavers’ lives, to sustain them and give them a reason to keep their art form alive.”

African textiles tell couple’s story and artisans’...


So in 2012, the couple started Petel in their living room, with the hope of creating pillows, totes and table runners out of the exquisite textiles of Mauritania, directing most of the proceeds back to the makers, exceeding fair wages and establishing the necessary funds to send young boys and girls from Boghé to private school.

“Petel means ‘little spark’ in Fulani, my country’s language,” says Ibrahima. “It’s a word that is used when you want to restore hope, in a person or in a project. It’s a word that conveys a blessing, which is what we wanted to do with our idea.”

The couple’s plan was to establish a partnership between artisans in West Africa and San Francisco. So they asked Ibrahima’s mother, Aïssata, to hunt for vintage fabrics, and they galvanized local weavers to create new blankets that would be sent halfway across the world to San Francisco.

Julie enlisted friends who knew how to sew and, with a communal effort, the Wagnes created Petel’s first line of products. Petel pillows seen at the home of Petel founders Julie and Ibrahima Wagne.

“We made as much as we could out of all the fabrics we had,” says Julie. “And slowly but surely, we grew by word of mouth, because we didn’t ever want to sell to anybody without actually telling the story of the textiles,” she says.

Their first buyers were their neighbors, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, who were just about to open State Bird Provisions in San Francisco.

“They wanted our table runners, and we were so thrilled,” recalls Julie. “From there, we slowly entered markets that seemed right, like the de Young Museum Store, Lavish, Birch, Summer Home and Erica Tanov, to name a few.”

Most of the products, even the ones they sell on their website, www.peteldesign.com, are one of a kind because every fabric is unique. “We want the end product to be as extraordinary and beautiful as the artisans who create them. These textiles are little works of art, like paintings.”

The couple’s latest endeavor is Petel Petite, a line of children’s clothing that utilizes the hand-stamped fabrics made by the women in Boghé.

“These are simple, beautiful clothing items made out of supersoft, wax-stamped cotton, which is what the females do while the men weave,” says Julie. “We wanted to promote the women’s art form, too.”

The couple, who have two daughters, Aïssata, 10 (named after her grandmother), and Leeli, 4, hope Petel will be a constant connection to the girls’ African heritage.

“It’s a link to the rest of the family, and a bridge to where I was before I came here,” says Ibrahima. “I wanted my daughters to know about the people in my country of Mauritania, and to appreciate their artistry and their work ethic.”

Julie and Ibrahima, who have full-time jobs in asset management and health care, respectively, say they both appreciate Petel’s collision of cultures, and the beauty that results from connecting artisans in Africa with artisans in San Francisco. Their hope is that a new generation of African weavers and artisans will see the value in their art form and endeavor to continue their Fulani traditions.

“And who knows, maybe one day our girls will take this side business of ours and turn it into something even bigger. It is indeed our little spark, and we’re watching it ignite hope in West Africa.”

Paige Porter Fischer is a freelance writer. E-mail: email@example.com. Petel founders Julie and Ibrahima Wagne show pillows at their S.F. home.

Remodelista Market

Meet Julie and Ibrahima Wagne of Petel and learn more about their artisans at the Remodelista Market, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 13 at Heath Ceramics, 2900 18th St., San Francisco. www.sfmarket.remodelista.com. www.peteldesign.com

Get the modern bohemian look

Colorful, vibrant textiles from around the world are on trend right now, from antique suzanis used as throws to ikats hung as artwork. Here are a few companies giving back — and supporting unique art forms around the world.

John Robshaw. Robshaw is a consultant for Aid to Artisans, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating economic opportunities for craftspeople in developing nations. He’s also a champion and friend of textile artisans around the world — from India to Thailand and Zimbabwe. His souk pillows and shams boast fabrics he has sourced from artists he meets on his travels. We love the Ghur tie-dyed throws, hand-tied and dyed by a master turban maker in Jaipur, India, which look like antique textiles and feature brilliant colors. Robshaw’s by-the-yard fabrics are beautiful enough to frame as art. www.johnrobshaw.com

Sari Bari. This nonprofit in Kolkata, India, helps save women and girls from being re-trafficked in the sex trade by giving them a chance to be artisans. The women create their textiles in a safe, loving environment, creating sustainable, handmade products such as luxuriously soft throws, pillow covers and baby blankets. “Sari Bari started back in 2006, and it was a response to the need we saw in the red-light area for an alternative — for a way out,” says Sarah Lance, co-founder and managing director. Their original sari blankets are beautiful enough to be worn as wraps — and quickly transform beds into fashion statements. Enliven a neutral sofa by mixing and matching Sari Bari’s colorful pillow covers. www.saribari.com

St. Frank. CEO and founder Christina Bryan started St. Frank in San Francisco to bolster the economic situations of artisans worldwide, to revive lost historical crafts and to make these art forms accessible to everyone. She’s curated a stunningly beautiful collection of textiles-as-art — from exquisite fabrics framed in modern shadowboxes to Mexican otomí tablecloths and indigo-dyed pillows and throws. Large textiles, such as a handira from Morroco, or a vintage suzani from Uzbekistan, framed in Lucite, are St. Frank signatures. www.stfrank.com
