Shared from the 4/19/2016 Connecticut Post eEdition

HAZEL DAZE

Boutique supports crafts from refugee women

Shop offers merchandise from around the world

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Hearst Connecticut Media file photos

Lib DeNure, owner of Hazel Daze.

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The Hazel Daze boutique at 86 Post Road in Fairfield.

As the calming sounds of smooth jazz played on the radio behind the counter, an inviting feeling filled the Hazel Daze Boutique at 86 Post Road in Fairfield. The local shop started in 2012 and works with local artists and programs to sell handmade items characterized as fair trade.

“I wanted to make it more about having a positive effect on people and the environment,” said owner Lib DeNure. “It started with three artists and fair trade. I believe in that, and so I wanted to support positive working conditions and help real people make a difference.”

Fair trade refers to a movement aimed at promoting sustainability as well as improved social and environmental standards.

DeNure has collaborated with more than 40 local artist and has made connections with others from all over the world, including Bali, to have about “80 to 90 percent” of the store’s merchandise be handmade. But it has been a connection from closer to home that has had an immense impact for not only herself, but for a group of women that have endured years of difficulties.

Our Woven Community is run through the Burroughs Community Center in Bridgeport and sells handmade items — such as scarves and handbags — produced by refugee women now living in the Bridgeport area.

“I think this place brings like-minded people to it,” DeNure said. “(Founder) Cynthia Davis walked in here, and we just started talking and she showed me one little tote that one of the artists had made.”

DeNure said the two reconnected after the program had grown from two or three women to about 12.

“We had both done local craft markets,” said Laura Genalo, Our Woven Community’s program director. “So we knew about each other, and it’s gone very well.”

Each piece made from Our Woven Community has the story of the woman who made the item and how the artist made it to Connecticut, as most women have spent several years in a refugee camp before coming to America.

According to Genalo, each woman gets half of what the item sold for as compensation for their work — and this includes items sold at Hazel Daze.

“I don’t take any cut at all for this,” DeNure said. “I give 100 percent (of the earnings) back. I just couldn’t do it, even if I took a percentage.”

Genalo said the program is looking to expand and partner with other stores in Fairfield County. The Hazel Daze impact for local artist has proven to be vast, but it is the mark on the community that has left employee Kyani Glasford with a sense of pride for the business.

“It’s unique,” Glasford said. “It has a lot more meaning to it, too. You know the story behind it and it just it gives more value.”

AJohnson@hearstmediact.com

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