“TAghazout bag” story
You might already have read the story about the bags when viewing the bags in the shop, but here is a little tribute to Reka and Julia aswell.
Real quick: I went to Taghazout, Morocco in January 2025 and spend almost a month there. I always walked past this one souvenirshop and had my eyes on the same ceramic bowls each time. I started interacting with the owner of the shop and always waved at him. In the beginning I didn’t really want to buy the bowls from him, since I like to buy arts/ceramics straight from the artist. But the ceramic bowls where nowhere else to be found. I choose 4 bowls but didn’t bring my money so the man and I set the bowls aside and agreed I would come back tomorrow. I never made it because I went surfing all day - I felt so bad. Went back the next day and the man remembered me, and we talked for a while and I made the purchase and we hugged. The man told me that the bowls are made in the dessert - so one day I have to go there and maybe buy a lot of bowls and sell them here…? Even though the sweet man wasn’t the artist of the bowls he was an icon to me and the ceramic bowls became my first inspiration for an ANLOU bag.
I fell in love with the green/yellow/black colors and the way all the bowls were unique and rustic. I tried to mix the colors and the different shapes from the color combinations into the Taghazout Bags. There are 3 variations of the Taghazout Bag: “Taghazout Bag I”, “Taghazout Bag II” and “Taghazout Bag III” and they each represent a color combination from the bowls. You might notice that there are to versions of the bag in “Taghazout Bag I” and “Taghazout Bag II” and that is because all the bowls are unique.
I’ve spent a lot of time crocheting the bags and thinking of the way I wanted to implement the ceramics bowls. Hopefully this bag will remind someone of their time in Morocco where they maybe also noticed all the beautiful and iconic ceramics. That is my goal - and hopefully this bag will inspire you to visit Morocco!
And now onto the real reason ANLOU is alive! REKA AND JULIA, my loves! Let me shortly introduce you to these two lovely souls. Julia is from Germany and I met her in Sri Lanka January 2024 and we just quickly became soulmates. It’s not so often you meet someone you just instantly connect with in so many ways. We shared so much in Sri Lanka and we met each other because we both volunteered at Ohana Surf Guesthouse in Ahangama. We had so much fun and decided to go to the Maldives together. Since the Maldives we didn’t see each other until January 2025 in Morocco, but we stayed in contact. Julia was already in Morocco when I went in January, and we had such a great time together - so nice to spend time with her again.
Reka is from Hungary, and I met her in Morocco January 2025 because we both volunteered in We Surf Morocco. Reka is such a special girl full of life: she is so cool and taught me so much about just being and not stressing so much about what I must do. We had a lot of fun together and laughed a lot in our little room in Morocco. I also convinced her to go surfing with me, YES!
One day Julia, Reka and I went to a market in Anza, a bit outside of Taghazout. After the market we drank a coffee in a fancy coffeeshop. Of course I brought my yarn and needle to work on some hats, because I had so much scrap yarn. And cliché: the tote bag I brought and the clutch was homemade.. Reka and Julia kept on asking why I didn’t sell the things I make. I told them that a lot of people crochet themselves and that’s it’s a lot of work if you want to crochet and sell it. But they kept on telling me that my things were special and that it doesn’t matter that other people maybe do the same. They kind of convinced me and I was like “you’re right, maybe I should give it a try”. I kind of had an idea in mind since I like travelling so much and thought of ways to combine it with my little project. And that’s how it all started. That day we started shooting some content of the things I just brought with me, and that’s before ANLOU was even invented ahah. We were just so thrilled about the idea of me finally doing something about my ideas and thoughts and made fun out of it… And it was a fancy coffee shop so of course good content ;) Just for fun I put the content here so you can see how it all started.
Again, thanks to Reka and Julia for pushing me back in January and thanks to Reka for the help with brainstorming about a name for my brand. I wrote a little about the name ANLOU in the section “about me” - go read it, it’s a funny story. After figuring out the name ANLOU I started sketching and continued the sketches when I came back to Denmark in February. I always sent the sketches of the ANLOU logo to Reka and Julia so they could help me figure out which one where the best and what to change. THANK YOU again Reka and Julia <3
