🖤 Why The Atelier?

Why would a woman in Cape Town with zero retail experience and even less online presence create a brand like this?

The short answer? Because I can.

Because there’s so much talent and creativity in this country — and honestly, you make it easy for me.

This whole thing started as a bit of a curious side quest:

Could I sell a few things from overseas to a local market?

How hard could it be to set up an online store?

Spoiler alert: it’s very easy to set up. Following through? Absolute chaos. Too many middlemen. Too little control. Incredibly expensive shipping fees. And the ever-present risk that some overseas supplier might try shipping through SAPO tripling (at best) the already long delivery times. The horror.

So, I pivoted. (I took ballet until I was nine — pivoting is a life skill.)

And I remembered the thing I love most about this country:

We are a nation of side hustlers. There isn’t an election queue without a guy and a skottel making boerie rolls. There isn’t a traffic light without beaded animal or a car disc holder for sale. 

People create because the government doesn’t. And that hustle? That’s our greatest superpower.

So I started talking to local small businesses.

Would you let me sell your things?

Some said yes.

A few beautifully curated imported pieces still feature — thanks to solid local importers (and zero involvement from SAPO). But mostly?

This is a platform for the creative brilliance that already exists right here.

I’m also working with a few artisans to create a small, exclusive range under The Atelier’s own name. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life (you wouldn’t even recognise my stick figures), but I do have ideas.

And one very important rule:

If it isn’t good quality, it doesn’t go on the shelf.

So no, I didn’t plan this.

I built it because it felt right. Because I know that beautiful, well-made things deserve to be seen — especially when they’re made right here, by real people, doing real work.

So now my long shipping times are because what is being sent to you is being made FOR you by people who really give a s%^& about what they do. 

So now you know as much as my therapist does...