Manoë is the founder of the French bag and textile accessories brand [ MANOE ]
Year founded: 2025
Design location, office: France 🇫🇷
Raw material sourcing location: Jaipur, India 🇮🇳
Manufacturing, production locations: Jaipur (and the surrounding small villages), India 🇮🇳
Meet the founder
The founder Manoë, and her brand bears her name too. It’s simpler that way. Originally, she is a documentary editor. So how did she end up launching an ethical bag brand made in India? Well, through her profession, she has always loved telling stories — sensitive, committed, made of images, sounds, silences. She also takes a lot of film photography: she loves the grain, the colors, and capturing moments of life. And she has always had a weakness for beautiful things: patterns, colors, materials, so falling in love with Indian fabrics was almost inevitable. It has been over ten years since she returned to India. For her love of this country, for the bonds forged there, for its energy, its warmth, its hues. Her best friend married an Indian man there — so she found a second home there. A place where she feels both amazed and deeply at home. It was in Rajasthan, in the streets of Jaipur, that she had a revelation: among the hand-printed patterns, the textures, the voices, the light… something went through her. And back in France, she wanted to extend this bond. Creating hand-sewn bags, in cotton, inspired by block print. Imagining everyday objects that have meaning: beautiful, useful, durable, and full of a story. Today, she continues to tell stories through my documentaries… But also through this new adventure that is manoë. A different way of creating, but always guided by the same values: sensitivity, attention to detail, and the desire to make beautiful things, with meaning. manoë was born from there: from a desire to create at my own pace, with people I love and respect. No overproduction, no race for trends. Just sincere pieces, made to accompany life, for a long time.
About the brand
Manoë is a French bag and textile accessories brand, born from a strong bond between its founder, Manoë, and India. A story of fabric, colors, travel, and craftsmanship. Each piece is imagined by Manoë, in close collaboration with Indian artisans, then handmade in Rajasthan, from 100% cotton fabrics, with block print patterns or inspired by this ancestral manual printing technique. The fabrics are hand-printed, or carefully selected from existing screen-printed cottons. The borders are sewn from cotton scraps. The quilting is done by hand, according to Indian tradition. The collections are designed in small series, without overproduction. Each bag is a unique piece, that tells a story — one of those you love to wear for a long time.
The eco-responsible impact
At Manoë, each piece is designed with care — but also with meaning. Behind the patterns and fabrics, there are choices: those of respecting time, know-how, and people. An artisanal and human manufacturing process All their bags and accessories are handmade in Rajasthan, in several small artisan cooperatives with which she works in direct contact.
Each workshop has its mission: fabric printing, quilting, sewing… No opaque intermediaries: they communicate directly with Radhika, my partner on the ground, who carefully coordinates the different teams of artisans with golden fingers. This relationship of trust allows for fair pay, respectful working conditions, and total transparency at every stage of manufacturing. Materials chosen with care. They exclusively use cotton. The fabrics are hand-printed using the traditional block print technique — or selected from already existing screen-printed cottons, to avoid any overproduction. The borders are made from fabric scraps used for the linings: here, we value every material down to the last thread.
Each piece is quilted by hand, which gives it softness, strength, and longevity. Their bags are designed to last, easy to wash, resistant, and made to accompany you for a long time. A reasoned production, they produce in very small series, without overstock. The models are made in limited quantities, sometimes in drops, according to the seasons and available fabrics. For now, shipments are made via FedEx (by plane), but their long-term ambition is to switch to container shipping, in order to reduce their carbon footprint. This production pace allows to limit the environmental impact, respect the work of the artisans, and avoid any waste. Their ambition: to offer durable, beautiful, and affordable pieces. No absurd margins, nor fake crossed-out prices. They want their bags to be worn, loved, passed down.
The values of the brand
🌀 Zero-waste lifestyle ↓
Each bag is sewn to last: sturdy cotton, manual quilting, careful finishes, and easily washable. They replace disposable or ephemeral bags: we keep them for a long time, we use them at the market, at work, on trips, for children, for ourselves. Some models (like diaper bags or toiletry bags) are adaptable, and can serve multiple uses depending on the stages of life.
👤 Know-how ↓
At Manoë, each bag is the result of artisanal know-how passed down from generation to generation, in the Rajasthan region, in India — the cradle of ancestral textile techniques, and notably block print. Block print is a manual printing method, practiced for centuries in the villages around Jaipur. Each pattern is engraved by hand on a wooden stamp, dipped in a natural or pigmented dye, then applied by hand to the fabric, centimeter by centimeter. This work requires precision, patience, and experience, and gives the fabrics a unique vibration: neither perfect nor uniform — but full of life. The bags are then sewn by hand by artisan tailors, whose trade is often passed from father to son, or from mother to daughter. Many of them have been working for several generations, perpetuating precise gestures and a love for a job well done. The manual quilting technique, in particular, is a regional specialty: it brings strength, comfort, and that soft touch so characteristic of manoë bags to each piece. At manoë, the fabrics do not come from automated factories, but from living workshops, where the time to do it well takes precedence over yield. Each piece carries within it the richness of an artisanal heritage, between tradition and modernity.
💎 Limited series ↓
At Manoë, each model is produced in a very small series: there are often fewer than ten pieces per pattern. They work with fabrics available in limited quantities, often hand-printed or carefully selected from existing stocks. Their series vary according to: – the availability of block print or screen-printed fabrics, – the textile scraps used for the finishes, – the artisanal pace of their partner workshops in India. Each collection is therefore ephemeral, reasoned, precious, and always without overstock.
🐨 Vegan ↓
At Manoë, no material of animal origin is used. Their bags are made exclusively of cotton: — for the exterior as well as the linings, — whether hand-printed (block print) or screen-printed, — with cotton quilting and finishes in recycled fabric scraps. They use neither leather, nor wool, nor animal glue, nor any derived material. Even the details (closures, topstitching, handles) are chosen in a 100% textile and plant-based logic. Their vegan approach naturally fits into their desire to create objects that respect living beings, are ethical and durable, without cruelty or animal exploitation.
⚖️ Fair trade ↓
Why Manoë is part of a fair trade approach. At manoë, each piece is handmade by Indian artisans whom they know personally. They work in direct contact, without intermediaries, with trusted workshops. They do not negotiate down — on the contrary, they pay their partners twice as much as the rates charged by wholesalers.
Why? Because behind each bag, there are hours of meticulous work, know-how passed down from generation to generation, and people who deserve fair pay. This pay allows their partners: – to work in good conditions, – to preserve and sustain a fairer local economy, – and to value the artisanal know-how of their region. Their model is based on a relationship of trust, mutual respect, and co-creation — far from the race for the lowest price.
[ Block print, heart, style, to bring color to everyday life with handmade pieces. What if beautiful, ethical, and affordable were one and the same? ]
