1. lishing the necessary funds to
send young boys and girls from
Boghé to private school.
“Petel means ‘little spark’ in
Fulani, my country’s lan-
guage,” says Ibrahima. “It’s a
word that is used when you
want to restore hope, in a per-
son or in a project. It’s a word
that conveys a blessing, which
is what we wanted to do with
our idea.”
The couple’s plan was to
establish a partnership be-
tween artisans in West Africa
and San Francisco. So they
asked Ibrahima’s mother, Aïs-
In the 650-square-foot San
Francisco apartment of Julie
and Ibrahima Wagne, bright
prisms of light pierce the front
bay window and illuminate the
small living area, where stacks
of African textiles sit on top of a
midcentury Danish console.
Julie reaches for a blanket
and unfolds it, revealing bright
orange stripes, the color of a
clementine. “Feel this cotton,”
she says, holding out the fabric.
“It’s cold to the touch. That’s
how you know it’s hand-spun.
It doesn’t get any softer than
this.”
For Julie, the blanket carries
as much sentiment as it does
beauty. A gift of her mother-in-
law, who lives in Mauritania —
the West African country
where Julie served in the Peace
Corps almost 16 years ago and
met Ibrahima — it was her first
introduction to an African art
form that inspired the couple’s
business, Petel.
“She gave this to me when
we got engaged, a symbol that
she approved of our marriage,”
says Julie, wrapping the blan-
ket around her waist to demon-
strate how African women
wear them. “These blankets are
a language in my husband’s
culture. They take a month to
weave and are considered trea-
sures. The women wear them
on their wedding day, carry
their babies in them, and pass
them from one generation to
the next.”
Sadly, the craft of hand weav-
ing isn’t expected to last in
Boghé, the village on the Sene-
gal River where Ibrahima grew
up watching men hand-spin
cotton.
“This has always been an art
form for the men, but the mas-
ter weavers were no longer
teaching their sons,” says Julie.
“It was too laborious. My hus-
band and I wanted to do some-
thing to make a difference in
these weavers’ lives, to sustain
them and give them a reason to
keep their art form alive.”
So in 2012, the couple started
Petel in their living room, with
the hope of creating pillows,
totes and table runners out of
the exquisite textiles of Mauri-
tania, directing most of the
proceeds back to the makers,
exceeding fair wages and estab-
sata, to hunt for vintage fabrics,
and they galvanized local weav-
ers to create new blankets that
would be sent halfway across
the world to San Francisco.
Julie enlisted friends who
knew how to sew and, with a
communal effort, the Wagnes
created Petel’s first line of prod-
ucts.
“We made as much as we
could out of all the fabrics we
had,” says Julie. “And slowly
but surely, we grew by word of
mouth, because we didn’t ever
want to sell to anybody without
actually telling the story of the
textiles,” she says.
Their first buyers were their
neighbors, Stuart Brioza and
Nicole Krasinski, who were
just about to open State Bird
Provisions in San Francisco.
“They wanted our table
runners, and we were so
thrilled,” recalls Julie. “From
there, we slowly entered mar-
kets that seemed right, like the
de Young Museum Store, Lav-
ish, Birch, Summer Home and
African textiles bring
warmth & history
Photos by Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
Petel founders Julie Wagne and husband Ibrahima Wagne, top,
at their S.F. home. Above: Petel pillows and a throw.
By Paige Porter Fischer
Remodelista
Market
Meet Julie and Ibrahima
Wagne of Petel and learn
more about their artisans at
the Remodelista Market, 10
a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 13 at Heath
Ceramics, 2900 18th St.,
San Francisco. www.sfmar-
ket.remodelista.com.
www.peteldesign.com
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