Culture + Design This Sustainable, Stylish South African Home Decor Brand Is Now Available in the U.S. The homewares brand Mo’s Crib is well known in South Africa. Now available from U.S. retailers, it’s finding a whole new audience. By Jalyn Robinson Jalyn Robinson Jalyn Robinson is the assistant travel editor at Dotdash Meredith, working for both Travel + Leisure and TripSavvy. She started at TripSavvy in 2021 and joined Travel + Leisure in 2023, where she writes, edits, and assists with other editorial operations. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Published on September 3, 2023 Close Michelle (left) and Mo Mokone at their warehouse in Pretoria, South Africa. Photo: Courtesy of Mo's Crib If you’ve stayed at the Silo Hotel in Cape Town or a Singita Lodge elsewhere in South Africa, you may have seen elegant woven baskets tucked discreetly under a sink or by a bedside. These are the work of Mo and Michelle Mokone, the sisters behind the Pretoria-based decor company Mo’s Crib. Woven baskets made from banana leaves and sisal. Courtesy of Mo's Crib This innovation paid off: the sisters won the market’s best new product award, which led to the launch of Mo’s Crib in 2016. Today, their laundry and storage baskets, placemats, trays, plant pots, and wall art — some of which are made from natural fibers like the sisal plant — are found in major retail stores around South Africa and online. In 2021, they began distributing in the United States through Crate & Barrel and, this past January, at Target. Some designs, like the “spark orange” baskets, are a celebration of South Africa’s vibrant visual culture, Mo says. In contrast, the sisters’ signature black-and-white line — which they say represents different races coming together—is inspired by Ubuntu, a humanist concept that translates to “I am because you are.” A planter basket made from recycled PVC. Courtesy of Mo's Crib In September, the sisters will debut a new basket made from banana-tree bark at Crate & Barrel. But their ambitions don’t stop there. “We would really like to have our own retail stores,” Michelle says. “I want to one day look back and say, ‘This was a dream, and now it’s here.’ ” A version of this story first appeared in the September 2023 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "A Tisket, A Tasket."