Liva Ramanandraibe, founder of the Ibeliv brand, promotes raffia from Madagascar

Bags, pouches and hats produced by Malagasy craftswomen enhance the raffia from the island of Madagascar. Ibeliv, a company based in Provence, is celebrating its tenth collection this year.

Liva Ramanandraibe, the creator of Ibeliv, ensures the artistic direction in France while the pieces are handmade in the workshops in Madagascar. The company is attached to social and environmental values ​​that constitute the DNA of the brand and govern its production choices.

The workshops provide a professional perspective to 2,000 Malagasy people from disadvantaged rural areas. Beyond acquiring their financial emancipation, the craftswomen contribute to placing their country on the world fashion chessboard while responding to environmental challenges. This activity reconciles the economic interest of rural populations and the preservation of raffia palms, an endemic species that was once threatened. Enriching meeting with Liva Ramanandraibe.

Franceinfo culture: Ibeliv is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. What is the story behind this brand launched with your mother Tiana?
Liva Ramanandraibe : The name we chose, Ibeliv, is pronounced “I believe”. Beyond a brand, it is a philosophy to work positively and with faith in all our actions. Our ambition is to make something beautiful by doing good. Our mission is to highlight Madagascar through the promotion of its crafts and to carry this vision as high as possible. This is the leitmotif of this family business and I share it with my mother and my brother Narindra. Father of three daughters also, I hope to have laid the foundations of an adventure that will transcend time.

You are the stylistic director, but you have training as an accountant?
For me, styling is a vocation. My desire is above all to share, to arouse emotion through my creations. The emotion that I try to transmit comes from my experience, from the love I have for Madagascar and from the encounters that have shaped my personality. MMother Tiana helps me a lot in my research. Her great mastery of craft techniques and her taste are valuable assets when developing the collections.

The company is based in France, but manufacturing is done in Madagascar?
I settled in Provence, in Arles, when I arrived in France. Leaving Madagascar was heartbreaking, I managed to find a balance by discovering the beauty of Provence and thanks to the encounters. France gave me everything by allowing me to acquire new knowledge and perfect my education. Ibeliv is a fusion of cultures that tries to offer the best.

You design bags, hats and pouches. What are the most iconic pieces?
Our iconic bags are the Vanilla, the Tokyo, the Onja, the Mirozy and the Laza. For hats, the Andao, the Lubeman, the Safari and the Izy. Each piece tells an inspiration. And when they are worn and worn, I find that they are even more beautiful: they then bear the marks of their use and a patina that transmit an even stronger emotion. We try to transcribe nature in our creations. Like the Ravina model which means “leaf” in Malagasy. This bag combines crochet and embroidery with tone-on-tone floral patterns. The goal is always to offer a wider artisanal palette.

Each collection presents about twenty bags and ten hats. It is available in several colors: Tea, a raffia classic, or Dark Tea, the color of our identity. Every year, we try to invent other colors to take raffia a little further from what we think we know about it. It is a kind of experiment to demonstrate that raffia can have unexpected facets.

You employ 2,000 women who work with crochet, a practice passed down from generation to generation in Madagascar…

Ibeliv is a large family where knowledge and know-how are transmitted in a very natural way. Sharing is an essential value for us. The economic development of older craftswomen serves as a model for the younger ones: craftsmanship is a field of the future and it is important to promote it in transmission.

“We are living in a pivotal time with the advent of artificial intelligence and the invasion of industrial products. We have chosen to focus on people and to highlight emotional intelligence.”

Liva Ramanandraibe

to franceinfo Culture

Each of your creations mentions the name of the person who crocheted it. Is this signature that guarantees the originality of the piece also a way of highlighting the craftswomen?
This approach is very important. First, it allows us to create a social bond with the person who will wear our products. They were entirely handmade, with love: a craftswoman put her soul into the creation of her piece. Then, it is the craftswomen who are at the origin of the creation of value, so it is also a form of recognition. Beyond valuing these craftswomen, we hope to give Madagascar and its talents the place that is its own.

You use raffia, a natural treasure of Madagascar. Why is it threatened?
In Madagascar, the staple food is rice and raffia palm grows in marshy areas that are very suitable for rice farming. The inhabitants are deforesting the raffia palms to replace them with rice fields. This, according to them, will guarantee them income.

But in reality, it is an income and a short-term vision because raffia plays a vital role for biodiversity. By promoting this sector, we show them that it is possible to combine environmental protection and economic activity. The skepticism of the beginning was replaced by real enthusiasm when they saw that the formula worked.

How can we stop this deforestation?
Ibeliv is committed to the fight against deforestation in two ways. Upstream, through a 35-hectare concession managed in partnership for three years with local communities. We plant 6,000 raffia palms there each year. Downstream, by promoting the raw material through high-end craftsmanship that preserves and enriches the ancestral know-how of the big island. The creation of stable employment for 2,000 women is tangible proof that can serve as an example to reconcile humans with nature. There are still many challenges, but I am very optimistic.

Combined with raffia, leather enhances certain models for which you prefer vegetable tanning rather than mineral tanning, a process more widespread in the world. Why this choice?
Mineral tanning, based on chromium salt, is the most common process. But we prefer vegetable tanning without the slightest hesitation. Indeed, directly inspired by nature, it was the first technique used by man who used tannins from plants.

Although it requires much more patience, this technique offers many advantages. Vegetable tanning guarantees the health safety of artisans, but also of the consumer. Then, it enriches the leather. Tanning has the advantage of transforming animal skins into leather that does not rot.

Firmer and more solid, it is distinguished by better hold and absorption of moisture. The dye, concocted by hand, gives deeper and more nuanced shades with a fairly heterogeneous rendering. The operation reveals the small marks and small defects that reflect the life of the animal and make the final beauty of the skin. In addition, by oxidizing under the effect of light, the vegetable tannins embellish the leather and give it a pretty patina.