Hello! We are Blue Leopard, a collective of female artisans in Zambia who are combining traditional hand-weaving skills with hi-tech recycled plastic yarn.
We are purpose-driven to empower women and protect the environment.
Blue Leopard was founded in Leopard’s Hill, Zambia, in a small cottage with a blue door.
We chose the name 'Blue Leopard' to evoke the image of a magical creature in the tradition of an African fable: a blue leopard who protects her wilderness home of blue skies & waters.
We love the magic of the Zambian bush, where leopard are indigenous, and we are mission-driven to protect their wild habitat.
Each handbag is handmade just for you by a talented female artisan who combines her traditional skills of weaving with our hi-tech material: recycled plastic yarn.
Our all-female recycling team collects recyclables across Lusaka, Zambia, where it is then sorted, shredded, pigmented and extruded into the yarn that our artisans weave by hand.
Your bag has therefore helped protect the magical wild of Zambia from plastic pollution, and has directly employed women as recyclers and artisans.
As an added bonus: because your bag is made from recycled plastic, it is waterproof - making it even more wildly chic!
Meet our artisans: Ruth, Mary and Sheila!
Through Blue Leopard, our immensely talented artisans are now their families' primary breadwinners.
We pay fair wages; offer micro-loans and savings programs; and welcome our working mothers to either bring their children to work or work from home, to accommodate their many responsibilities.
Each Blue Leopard bag is handwoven with empowerment, connectivity, growth, love and gratitude - which we hope you feel when you carry your bag!
We are mission-driven to empower women and protect the environment.
We make products that are wildly chic: inspired by the Zambian wild, walking barefoot in the sand, staring at the night stars, daring & dreaming & doing, combining statements of fashion with social & environmental impact.
We aim for our products to evoke the joy of wild, wild spaces, and an appreciation of artisanal craftsmanship, the OG of slow-fashion.
Our founder, Nora Anderson, was born and raised in Connecticut, and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, King's College London and Yale.
Nora arrived in Zambia for a one-year teaching sabbatical, and ended up staying for five years to launch and develop Blue Leopard.
When not designing, learning, re-learning, bookkeeping, or battling the internet and/or scorpions, Nora can be found handwriting notes to each client, horse riding, camping under the open-sky of the African bush, and taking long walks with her dog / personal assistant, Mason St. Francis.
