Empowering One Woman At A Time

Welcome to Local Women's Handicrafts. We’re a fair trade, eco-conscious collective of women who create unique fashion and decor in Nepal. Our mission is to help empower and educate women, enabling them to write their own destiny. We provide a safe space for women who have escaped abusive practices in the textile industry and other injustices in their local communities. Our manufacturing facilities allow these women to learn new skills and crafts as a group to help heal and rehabilitate their spirits. Through raising awareness and making fashion in an ethical way, our goal is to end childhood slavery, forced marriage, and other injustices against women.

  • Women Empowerment

    We work in Nepal, one of the least developed countries in the world, where only 2% of women own businesses. Our production facility teaches professional skills in fiber crafts, entrepreneurship and sustainability. After completing the four-year program, the women have an option to work at the center receiving a fair salary or open their own small businesses. Our comprehensive model supports the whole woman so she can feel safe, experience self-value and heal from trauma.

  • Sustainability

    Our focus is on ethical fashion, we model sustainability by collaborating with local farmers and small businesses. Through offering skills development in handicraft production and literacy education, we empower women to generate their own income and support their children in a healthy and sustainable way.

  • Environmentally Friendly

    We grow and harvest raw materials locally and we recycle discarded materials, using 100-year-old looms that don't need any electricity. We are plastic free, cruelty free, chemicals free, and pollution free.

  • Ethical Fashion

    We’re working towards bringing an end to fast fashion, freeing women from sweatshops, and protecting Mother Earth. Handcrafted with love by women coming together to change the fashion industry. We’re committed to giving supply chain transparency
    to our customers.
About Us

Upcycled Collection

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. We are buying and consuming products more than ever in our human history. We want to show that responsible consumption is possible by using discarded materials and turning them into beautiful products.

We collect left-over materials discarded from big manufacturers. We wash them 3 times, dry them, iron them and then cut them into small pieces. Using a 1000-year-old technique, we spin them and we woven them on a manual traditional 100-year-old loom that doesn’t need any electricity. By working with recycled fabrics we are contributing to making the fashion industry more sustainable.

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Upcycled Collection

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Hemp Collection

Hemp grows wild in Nepal, free of chemicals and nurtured with natural resources. By focusing on what is available locally, we help boost the local economy while teaching the people to be in harmony with nature. Hemp fiber is strong and durable and it's a very sustainable and environmentally friendly material.

We grow and harvest the plant locally and the entire process of growing, harvesting, weaving is done by hand. We use a 1000-year-old technique to turn that raw fiber into yarn and we woven it into fabric using a 100-year-old loom that doesn’t need any electricity. We then sew it either in its natural state and color or we hand dye it using natural dyes.

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Hemp Collection

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What Customers Have To Say

Love everything about this company!

Wonderful company, amazing product, and their mission is beautiful.

We love working with Local Women's Handicrafts and our clients love them too!

Juliana • United States

Couldn't be happier!

This was my first order with LWH and I will definitely be reordering.

Exceptional quality, service and experience.

Customers are already noticing and purchasing the new items in the store :) Thank you so much for the wonderful work you do!

Tanja • Canada

Great quality, great price and good company.

The quality, fulfilment time and everything was just top notch, my customers are so happy with the product and I will for sure order more in the near future.

Robert • Norway

Great company!

Such a pleasure to deal with. They go out of their way to make the experience easy, friendly and hassle-free. Products are lovely and very well-made.

Esmé • Switzerland

Beautiful products. Fast Delivery!

These mats are beautiful and are perfect for a restorative yoga class. They add challenge to your flow as they are a bit more like practicing on sand since the weave does have give. Really great for intensifying practice. By placing another mat underneath the rug becomes more stable and then you have this massive amount of comfort to practice on!!

Stephanie • United States

An address to remember

Awesome clothing and textile craft shop , good quality, hand-made products but more importantly, fair-trade made by local women of Nepal in a safe work environment. It is always a pleasure to come and talk with the staff about their current projects aimed at empowering women. Great shop and great cause :)

Gaby • Canada

Do yourself a favor and visit this place!

At the end of our stay in Kathmandu we found the LWH and I am so grateful we did. This place is build up by the most heartwarming and strong people. And their everyday work for their mission and vision is so inspiring. This is a place that I will never forget, and then it’s a win win situation that they make the most beautiful fair trade things that you can’t leave behind without buying. Do yourself a favor and go visit the Local Women’s Handicrafts.

Clara • Denmark

All the love for these women and this store!

At Local Women's Handicrafts you have the chance to meet some inspiring women, buy high quality and beautiful items, and support a great cause! The woman that owns the store is one of the most selfless and empowered person I know. When you visit the store you will not only take away amazing products but you will also be taking away an experience- ask about visiting their workshops!
The women who work here make your visit educational and positive. I always leave there with a smile on my face.
Please go and support these inspiring women!! :)

Tricia • Tanzania

The best place to get quality gifts and souvenirs and to be inspired

This shop comes Highly recommended for the design and quality of the products. But it also represents the powerful message of hard work and determination to escape from oppression and poverty. My latest visit to this remarkable project was truly inspirational. I had last visited the shop and the workshop in 2016 and what a transformation of the workshops and accommodation.
Please visit the shop send website and support them.
Well done Nasreen and sister Saheen. You deserve every success.

Judi • UK

Exceptional Quality

Not only are these products beautiful, they are extremely well made, the quality is exceptional! Thank you so much for all that you do!

Donna Kudzman • United States

Meet The Women

Local Women’s Handicrafts was founded in 2008 with a big goal: To lift women up who have been marginalized and exploited; to give them opportunity, skills, and a sense of dignity; and to spread our model of empowerment across the world. 

Through the LWH entrepreneurial empowerment model, our goal is to empower 10,000 women in the world’s poorest regions by 2025 and create a textile industry that honors sustainability, human rights and dignity.

Read Their Stories

In The Press