Laetitia Djian
For the love of the beach
By Laurence Jacquet
In 2015, Nice-based Laetitia Djian founded and created Las Bayadas in Sayulita, Mexico. The purpose of the brand has been the same since the beginning: to promote Mexican crafts with a line of timeless and colourful accessories. After studying at Beaux-Arts Paris and gaining some fashion-industry experience in India and China, Laetitia decided to move overseas. She fell in love with Sayulita, a remote village on Mexico’s Pacific coast. She made the village her home and opened a “souvenir” shop stocked with local products. That’s when she set her creative mind to using a typical and traditional local textile – an ultralight fabric made of recycled cotton, polyester and acrylic – to make extra-large beach blankets. And the story of Las Bayadas began. Laetitia invented the name from the French word bayadère (meaning stripes) and adding a Mexican sound. “I managed to find the manufacturer of this mysterious textile from Mexico that I loved so much. It was a full-on investigation! I wanted to create a timeless brand, optimising local know-how, applying high quality standards and working with my own colour ranges – to create products that would appeal to European and American tastes. I wanted a business with meaning; it would be a way of thanking the country that had accepted me so warmly. I have since expanded my Las Bayadas collection with bags, clutches and totes, and I now oversee three Mexican workshops, one of which does social integration projects through a sewing school. Supporting the women of Mexico is one of the top priorities for my business.”
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