Last year I came across a luxury brand from Madagascar called Pok Pok on Instagram. I was drawn in by the intricate detail of the bags, zooming in to get a closer look, raffia worked into rounded and sculptural shapes, inspired, the brand explained, by the braiding techniques used in the creation of the hairstyles of southern Madagascar. According to the brand: ‘Braids speak without words. In Malagasy culture, braids are a silent language, a coded system read by an entire vil