About
A small house with a clear stance
Kaanela grew from a simple conviction: beauty and fairness needn't exclude each other — you just have to be honest about where you stand.
We sell handwoven Wayuu mochilas from La Guajira, Colombia. Each is one of a kind, made by hand by a weaver in La Guajira.
We are deliberately small and direct. Instead of anonymous mass production, we buy through a direct local partnership in La Guajira — from Wayuu women who weave each bag by hand.
Kaanela is curated and run in Europe, with bilingual service and careful shipping across the EU. The weaving happens in La Guajira. The two belong together.
How a journey became Kaanela
Kaanela began on a trip through Colombia. In La Guajira — where the desert meets the Caribbean — we saw the Wayuu's handwoven mochilas for the first time. The craftsmanship caught us immediately. At the same time, we realised how little of these bags' value reaches the families who weave them.
It was on that trip that Santiago and Matthias met. Santiago lives in Colombia and knows the region, the routes and the people; Matthias builds and runs Kaanela from Switzerland. A shared idea became a small, honest brand: Santiago finds the weavers and negotiates on equal terms on the ground, while Matthias looks after the shop, the design and shipping to Europe. Kaanela is our attempt to connect two worlds with respect — and to give an old craft a fair stage.