Atelier Broderies de Saïda

Tatreez — Levantine cross-stitch — is written, not printed: every motif carries a village, a season, a family. The embroiderers of this Saida cooperative learned the stitches from mothers and grandmothers, and now put them on keffiyehs, totes and silk, one needle-pass at a time.

A single tote can take a full week of evenings. The cooperative sets its own piece rates — published to made-ly and reflected in the premium on every textile lot — so that the hands doing the slowest work are the first ones paid.