Said — Essaouira, Morocco

Said has been our Essaouira pilot for ten years. Working alongside a group of talented women from the region, they have brought to life countless Undercover and GPS bags for Kilometre Paris.

The Process

Wool spools and palm cord used for the handles are all sourced by Said in Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Agadir. It is a fine puzzle to get every color, but he is a master now. He sometimes has to deal with stocking issues and find last-minute alternatives to ensure that the colors are as close as possible to our designs.

The Undercover baskets are made by him and his family: his wife Hafsa, his mother Aicha, and his sister Fatima-Zahara. They use a metal structure called a "Gabarit" to make the shape as uniform as possible, and after a last quality check they are sent to be crocheted. It can take a week to 10 days to make one basket.

Delivered to the women directly in their homes after Omar makes and attaches the handles, they use various crochet techniques to bring the designs to real life.

Some of the women are in charge of the background, others of the relief accents. Another gabarit is created to make the design as simple to crochet as possible. Each woman works alone, from the comfort of her house. The women do not want to work in an atelier — they want to be able to stay with their families and kids. Their homes are scattered across the Essaouira region, in a 60 km radius. Through this, women ranging from 20 to 72 years old have created for themselves a regular stream of revenue. Their craft allows them to build independence and help their family.

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Leonora — Chimalhuacán, Estado de México

For the past ten years, Leonora has been the bridge between Kilometre Paris and a remarkable group of artisans in Chimalhuacán, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Since 2006, this collective has brought together women from different parts of Mexico — Oaxaca, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Mexico City — who, although coming from different traditions, all found a shared home in Chimalhuacán.

The Process

Unlike many embroidery ateliers, their craft was not always inherited. For many of the women, embroidery began out of necessity: a way to support their families while working from home. Over time, necessity became passion, and today their hands master a wide range of stitches, from rococo and satin stitch to blanket stitch, back stitch, cross stitch, daisy stitch, and ladder stitch. Every Kilometre design calls for a different combination of techniques, carefully chosen to bring each illustration to life.

The workshop itself has no permanent address. Instead, it moves from one artisan's home to another, wherever the group decides to gather. Most of the embroidery is completed in their own homes, allowing the artisans to balance their work with family life. Leonora stays in constant contact with each embroiderer, drawing every design by hand, preparing full-scale patterns, and visiting Chimalhuacán every two weeks to answer questions and ensure every piece reflects the highest level of craftsmanship.

Each shirt is entrusted to a single artisan. Though everyone masters the same stitches, every hand has its own rhythm, its own tension, its own signature. Completing one Kilometre shirt can take around two to three months.

More than an embroidery collective, this is a community built on collaboration, trust, and resilience. Through every stitch, these women have transformed embroidery into a source of independence, proving that craft is not only something inherited — it is also something learned, shared, and passed on to the next generation.

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Archana & Devanshi — Kolkata, India

Based in Kolkata, our partner Archana & Devanshi has been bringing together some of India's finest embroidery artisans for the past 28 years. Founded by Archana and now run alongside her daughter Devanshi, the family company works with skilled craftspeople from across the country's embroidery belt, preserving techniques that have flourished since the Mughal Empire and continue to be passed from one generation to the next.

The Process

Many of the artisans have never learned their craft in a classroom. They grew up watching their fathers and grandfathers embroider, eventually taking their place around the same wooden frames. Sitting on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, they stretch the fabric across large embroidery hoops and work with only a hooked Aari needle, thread, and a pair of scissors. It is a simple set of tools, mastered through years of repetition and extraordinary precision.

Aari embroidery is at the heart of their work. Using a small hooked needle, artisans create fluid chain stitches that allow drawings to come to life with remarkable detail. Depending on the design, they combine the technique with French knots and other hand-finished details, adding texture and depth to every composition.

Several of Kilometre's embroidered journeys have come to life in their hands. Pieces such as the Octopus shirt and the K-Shirt combine different embroidery techniques and require days of meticulous work, while simpler designs may be completed in just a few hours. Every stitch is guided by the artisan's hand, making no two pieces exactly alike.

What makes Archana's workshop truly special is not only its embroidery, but the community behind it. For nearly three decades, they have worked with artisans whose families have dedicated generations to this craft. Together, they preserve a living tradition while transforming Kilometre's drawings into stories that can be worn, one stitch, one journey, one pair of hands at a time.

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