Fall / winter ‘20

At CEW (Creatively Empowered Women) Design Studio, our team of artisans is always at the core of our mission. Immigrating to Chicago as Bosnian refugees, our artisans bring with them master knitting and crochet skills passed down through generations, a part of their legacy that transcends space, place, or language. CEW provides the supplies and setting. The women provide the artistry. The result is our Handmade By Design collection.

This year’s collection is an inspiring resurgence in contemporary craftsmanship. Incorporating tenets of community building, fashion design, and fiber arts, CEW offers a seamless collaboration in social enterprise.

Our products are created from 100% Peruvian Highland wool, a high quality fiber that our artisans love working with. You will feel the love due to the perfect balance of softness and warmth on fall and winter days.

Refugees and immigrant women of various ethnic backgrounds are the core of CEW (Creatively Empowered Women) Design Studio. They are the main reason why each collection purely manifests.

The artisans of CEW often faced challenges entering the workforce or growing their social networks due to language barriers. Several of the women also cope with a mental illness as well as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress disorder) due to witnessing extreme violence in their former homeland. In addition to creating upscale hand-made ethical fashion, our aim is to facilitate a participant-guided space where the women creatively engage in supporting each other and heal as a community. Their extraordinary stories ingrained in each piece is what makes the products we sell distinct..