A Little Courage, Hand-Tied
Petit Kouraj makes fringed net bags that move like clothing, designed in Brooklyn by a stylist of Haitian heritage and named in Creole for the courage it takes to begin.
In Haitian Creole, petit kouraj means a little courage. Nasrin Jean-Baptiste has explained the name simply: a little bit of courage every day will compound to a whole lot.
The stylist's turn
Jean-Baptiste was born in London to Haitian immigrant parents. She began as an editorial fashion assistant and spent more than fifteen years as a stylist, moving to New York in 2012. "When I think back, I always wanted to be a designer," she told Who What Wear. The push came from her daughter, Daye, and from a trip to Haiti, where she found the workshop that would make her bags.
Petit Kouraj launched in May 2019 at Moda Operandi, timed, fittingly, to Haitian Heritage Month.
Fringe, strand by strand
The bags are designed in Brooklyn. According to press at the time of launch, they were handmade in Haiti by artisans working with D.O.T Haiti, a women-led organization offering education and vocational training. The fringe is applied and sewn by hand, strand by strand, and the handles are wrapped in leather cord. A mini bag, The Zoe Report noted in 2019, carries more than three hundred strands of fringe and takes between eight and twelve hours to finish.
The construction gives the bags their peculiar charm: the net stretches to hold what you put into it and returns to its shape when emptied. "I want to create bags that give the feeling of clothing," Jean-Baptiste has said. Of the fringe itself: "It's mysterious, fun, sexy and most of all, it has life."
The collection now
The Mini Fringe in Hibiscus, a fuchsia net with an orange leather handle, is $375. The Yang, in ivory with a black leather handle, begins at $375 and comes in a larger shopper size. The Daye Tote, named for the daughter who started it all, has sold out in its Cibao colorway, which pairs lilac fringe with a black-and-yellow leather-wrapped handle.
The brand describes itself as luxury handbags inspired by Haiti: whimsically unique, ethically sourced and artisanally crafted. It is a definition of luxury worth adopting. Not the price, nor the logo, but the hours of hands in every strand, and the little courage it takes, every single day, to begin.
