Our Purpose
.
Our dream is every clothes we wear supports a cause
while nourishing ourselves and the earth that nourishes us.
At Love Stories Bali, style + nature + giving are inseparable.
We give you the choice of limited edition clothes
and accessories made to support communities,
local creatives and artisans. We craft them to be artistic,
timeless and worn a lot, completely from natural materials
without harsh chemicals, and lovingly handcrafted by
artisans and artists in home-based workshops in Bali.
Then you become an inherent donor
to our school mission: to share 50% of our net proceeds
from all purchases to give underprivileged children the
privilege of green education in a woman-founded preschool
in Bali that we're helping to expand.
.
We are a Bali-based social enterprise founded in 2017
by our small team of socially-conscious women who's
on a mission to make a difference in the world by focusing
on social, ethical and environmental impact, not just profit.
..
STYLE
Our intent is to inspire style not fashion,
a way of expressing who we are,
how unique we are, what we value.
. Stylish, versatile and timeless pieces - so you can
style more, wear more or even share more,
easily care for, season after season.
. We fit our designs to the skills and capacity of our
artisans, the colors Bali plants can give, and the
natural materials we can locally access.
.
Upcycled Style That Saves Nature
Stay stylish with our reborn love-worn clothes and
accessories.
. 100% of profit from sales of donated used clothes
in our Ubud shop is gifted to our school mission.
. We patchwork fabric scraps and repurpose used
clothes so we can extend their use while
enjoying the creative challenge.
..
NATURE
Enjoy the goodness of nature's fibers and dyes on
your skin and the freedom from harsh chemicals.
.
Natural Fabrics
. Certified hemp with organic cotton blend from China
. Certified organic cotton from Indonesia
. Certified Tencel™ from Lenzing
. 100% silk satin 16 momme from China
Handloom woven cotton from Indonesia
. Handloom woven pineapple fiber from Philippines
. Indonesian batik heritage fabrics sourced only from
our network of avid batik collectors in Yogyakarta.
Indonesian batik is UNESCO listed as Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity in 2009 for
its technique, symbolism and culture.
.
Natural Dyes
We use dye plants grown in abundance in Bali.
Desaturated colors make plant dyes unique.
Colors are unpredictable so we get artistic variations
and imperfection from one dye bath,
or one plant harvest, to the next.
. Blues extracted from strobilanthes cusia leaves
. Blacks from ketapang leaves
. Yellows from mango leaves
. Reds from sappan wood
. Browns from coconut husks
. More colors from combinations of plants
. Potpourri of leaves and flowers for ecoprinting
..
Nature Loving Artisan
Treasure slow craftsmanship by Balinese artisans
Treasure slow craftsmanship by Balinese artisans
and share their joy of giving the world
conscious creations with a purpose.
. We produce without rushing so artisans can attend
to family needs and many Balinese cultural rituals.
. The Balinese families who we choose to partner with
share our values for social, ethical and environmental
responsibility, and whose home-based workshops
are a happy place for both their family and artisans.
. We are onsite to see every step of the process,
and learn from each other.
.
Slow Craftsmanship We Use
. Plant dyeing by hand using Bali plants
. Eco-printing by hand with fresh leaves and flowers
. Indonesian batik-making by hand (UNESCO listed as
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009)
. Handpainting using plant-based inks
. Eco-dyeing by hand for screenprinting
. Old fashion cutting by hand
. Color-mixing done by hand, from experience not formula
..
GIVING
Feel good becoming an inherent donor.
Share our joy of gifting 50% of our net proceeds
from your purchases to the community and
giving underprivileged children the privilege of green
schooling in a woman-founded preschool in Bali.
.
Our School Mission
Agnes Rini Astuti founded PAUD (preschool)
Cemara Kasih in 2010 with nothing more than her
savings plus family donations and a big mission:
educate preschoolers from families in extreme
poverty with a sustainable early development program
focusing on life skills and materials from nature.
Our school mission is to raise fund to help expand and
green the school and sponsor children from families in
extreme poverty for their annual school fees.
With our support since inception in 2017, the school
expanded to the next door land, increased the number
of preschoolers, and built an organic garden for
children's green education.
By connecting Agnes with international and local experts
who volunteer to help, she continuously improves
the greening of the school, and is now plastic free.
.
Today Agnes is multi-awarded:
. In 2020, she was selected by the Ministry of Education to
be take part in reshaping the country's required
sustainable early development curriculum.
She was the only teacher from Bali.
. In 2019, she was sponsored for Reggio Emilia early
education teachers' training in Italy along with 15
nationwide teachers. She was the only one from Bali.
. In 2018, she was one of 12 "Changemakers of Indonesia"
(a national award annually granted by the Indonesian
government) for her innovative early development
programs,
..
GIVING TO THE EARTH
Tree Planting
For every Hannah Tree Planting organic cotton t-shirt
we sell, we use $4 USD to buy young trees.
We started this journey in January 2020 and by March,
pre-pandemic, planted 100 trees in a protected jungle
in Bali in collaboration with our partner, Pagi Motley.
We help not only preserve our ecosystem but also offset
the carbon emissions involved in our order deliveries.
..
COMMUNITY OF GIVING CUSTOMERS
Loving humans from over 80 countries,
from Iceland to Cuba, Ethiopia, and down to New Zealand
- of all races, sizes, gender, personalities, income -
have supported and exchanged life stories with us
since we opened our little shop in July 2017 in Ubud, Bali.
Teachers volunteered in the schools and changed lives.
Artists created art for the shop to join our causes.
Can't believe! We’re so grateful.
..
TRI HITA KARANA
Balinese devote to the life philosophy of “Tri Hita Karana”
(Three Causes of Well-being: God, Nature, Community)
to achieve wellness and success in life.
This guides the way we work with our partners
where our decisions and actions are harmonized
to honor nature, respect people and the community,
and revere the Gods through spiritual traditions.
Love lives here.
Amanda, a fashion designer from New York, visited the Ubud shop in early 2018. In 2019, she and her partner Sam created this art for our reusable cotton shopping bag as their way to support our causes. This is now our shop's signature art.
.
Three love stories are showing in this photo of our Ubud shop.
Love from Jessie (who instagrammed this photo during the lockdown), a shop owner in Antwerp, Belgium who loves Bali's healing energy so much she comes back once a year with her friends and visit us with a big hug. Love from Russell and Ani from Bali, founders of global ecobricks.org, who designed and built the unique LOVESTORIES rooftop sign from used plastic bottles they cleaned out from the beaches. Love from Efren and Britney, mural artists from Austin, Texas who were so stoked to do that storefront mural when they visited the island in May 2019, and then became sponsors to 5-year-old Dedek for her one-year school fees.
ALL WE NEED IS LOVE.