ABOUT US
About Chicetnic
For someone like me, Paola, who has always worked for fashion, I think it was really more than certain to just fall in love with the stunning Madagascar’s handcrafted world. So, together with Gédéon, the greatest partner ever, we decided to start our own journey with CHICETNIC, a brand that has taken up the challenge of using natural raw materials and bounding the incredible local artisans’ creativity to the italian way to handmade fashion products, with the most accurate attentions to details. The result is an amazing and unique collection based on colors and differents textures, that has for sure something you will definitely call an ‘ethnic but elegant touch’.
The atelier
In a quiet little corner of Antananarivo, far but not too much from the center of the pulsating heart of Madagascar, surrounded by a lush garden with plumeria’s and lychee’s trees: here you can find our atelier.
This is where we discuss our ideas, we match styles and fabrics and creativity. This is where the magic comes to life thanks to a small but talented and motivated team that help us to turn ideas into beautiful and unique products.
With their passion and attention to every detail this amazing team support day by day the CHICETNIC concept: handcrafted products have an higher value, no matter where they come from.
OUR ARTISANS
A WONDERFUL TEAM
Horn decor
Together with her husband Richard, Madame Lea has given life to a little but highly specialized atelier in which they transform natural horn in beautiful, elegant decor pieces for your home and stylish and unique accessories.
CROCHET GIRLS
Jala & Jenny are sisters, two of a whole women’s family.
They do crochet with rafia strings creating amazing bags. Pochettes, roundies, backpacks, there is nothing they can’t do. Creativity and precision are their trademarks.
A STRONG WOMAN
Madame Haingo is the chef of a big atelier that uses rafia sheets to create a variety of colored and beautiful accessories: different size boxes, jewelry cases and everything you can imagine to give your home that elegant and unique touch.
A NATURAL CHOICE
LITTLE THINGS ABOUT OUR MATERIALS
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber produced from ‘Corchorus’ plants. The suitable climate for plants growing (warm and wet) is offered by the monsoon season. It is also called the ‘golden fiber’ for its color and high value.
From the raffia palm called ‘taedigera’ comes raffia fibers, produced from the membrane on the underside of each individual frond leaf. The membrane is taken off to create a long thin fiber which is dyed and woven as a textile into many products.
The so called ‘Dalbergia madagascariensis’ is part of important timber trees, valued for their decorative and often fragrant wood, rich in aromatic oils.
Made out of free-range zebu (the local counterpart to our cows), leather is naturally tanned by our artisans with Mimosa’s tree bark and rests for weeks in order to have the smoother and high-quality product.
The horn of local zebu could be naturally found in three shades (dark, melanged and white). The color could not be seen from the outside but artisans are able to individuate each shade starting from the coat’s color of the animal.
As cotton fabric is coming from the most prestigious African producers, the so called ‘suga’ is a rough cotton made in Madagascar. It could be more or less thicker, and we use it as doublure in some products.