Ethical Home Goods Entrepreneur Sara Berks Shares Her Must-Have Gifts This Holiday Season

The founder and creative director of MINNA shows us everything she’ll be giving to her favorite people and furry friends.

Nov 18, 2020 - 18:17

Ethical Home Goods Entrepreneur Sara Berks Shares Her Must-Have Gifts This Holiday Season

The founder and creative director of MINNA shows us everything she’ll be giving to her favorite people and furry friends.

Sara Berks, founder and creative director of MINNA.

After graduating from The School of Visual Arts and trying her hand at digital branding, Sara Berks left the field to pursue her desire to use design to create an impact. In 2013 she founded MINNA, a queer-owned, ethically-made line of home goods rooted in traditional craft techniques. They collaborate with female weavers and artisans in Central and South America, which ensures job creation and craft preservation. The designs are splashy, textural, and meant to be mixed and matched—a perfect mashup of feminist art, the Bauhaus, traditional craft, and vintage textiles. We asked Sara to tell us which items from her line and beyond she’s hoping to gift (and get!) this season.

"Everyone I know has been spending more time in the kitchen this year."

MINNA's new Spring-inspired collection includes all of your kitchen staples - napkins, towels, oven mitts, potholders, and aprons! Grab everything in the same color, or mix and match colors and stripes to liven up your kitchen. Features an adjustable loop tie for around the neck, a pocket, and two tool loops for your spoons, spatulas, or matching tea towel. Handwoven by a family run cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico.

"You can fill this basket with smaller, gift-y items too! We like to encourage customers at the shop to use our baskets as ‘sustainable wrapping.’"

These small palm baskets are great for all sorts of storage - kitchen, bathroom, or catchall. The hand-braided palm is sewn into super sturdy baskets and ready for whatever you throw at (or in) them. Handmade by a family run co-op in Oaxaca, Mexico.

"This dog collar is just what my dog Soba needs this season! Dogs need some extra love this year too!"

Easy to use. Simple to clean. Made with a super strong flex-poly strap, this all-weather collar is comfortable and functional. It's also dirt and odor resistant.

"I really like gifting useful items—especially from brands whose ethics I respect. Diaspora is a really amazing queer and BIPOC–owned brand and I love what they’re striving to do for the spice trade."