"For these women in Africa, this is their story; they are their own way out of the cycle of poverty. With everything that's going in America and with the election, we as women need to stand up for what we believe in."

Brother Vellies creative director Aurora James is in her CFDA Fashion Incubator studio showing us the new spring collection. On the walls are gorgeous photographs of tribeswomen and African American women; on the window sill sits a leather bag with a "Future is Female" patch on it.

And all around us are shoes and handbags created in companionship with traditional, indigenous craftspeople i n South Africa, Kenya, Morocco and other parts of the world using sustainable, recycled and otherwise mindful leathers and other fabrications. And not an ounce of color, style or perspective is sacrificed.

In fact, it's really the other way around; what Aurora calls the "transfer of knowledge"-and her dedication to getting it all done right-are what yield the current season's Mongolian shearling-topped ankle-strap sandals for modern-day global Audrey Hepburn types. And spring's highly covetable variation on the theme (below.)

Here's how it works: Aurora travels extensively and researches groups of small-batch makers as well as their materials. When she sees a style or a treatment or a textile that she loves, she adapts it into a Brother Vellies silhouette, and then has a sample of the style made with fine fabricators in Italy. When the sample is perfected, she returns to the original country and works to get all the just-gleaned production knowledge into the hands of the original artisans.

The process doesn't just ensure a union of European precision with handcrafted vision, it extends the wisdom of both parties; it raises everyone's potential. Because so many of the artisans are women, that means she's doing her part to raise the global potential of women and that's something she takes seriously. All of this is why the title of her spring collection is, "She is the Medium and the Means."

Aurora wouldn't say so herself, but we'd include her in the "she" of that medium and means statement. Okay, yeah, she wears her brand very, very well (and almost exclusively, save a few pair of Nikes and some Rodarte heels), but she's also "not afraid to get her hands dirty."

Witness the peach-toned furry bag above, next to the Moroccan-made clog. She makes use of small end lots-leftovers, really-of Mongolian lamb to craft it, but none of Moroccan suppliers happened to have it in that specific candy tone. So she and her interns dyed the materials themselves, in her studio.

" I'm kind of hands on in the learning and the doing. If you can't get the thing you want, you should figure out how to do it yourself," she says.

It's more or less how the brand started, and how it will evolve. Take this week, for instance. Instead of putting this spring's styles in a NYFW presentation, she took the season off and is seeing clients and the press personally, and taking time to talk with them about her work. She says was asking herself questions about the impact and purpose of Fashion Week, and she hadn't come up with all the answers ... so she decided to wait this one out. She doesn't think she'll always take a pass on presenting, but this is where her heart and her head are right now, so that's what she's acting on.

She says she hopes maybe other designers will see her actions as evidence that if they don't feel authentically hyped on participating in the traditional manner, they don't have to. She hopes she can encourage all her peers to find their own way.

"So many people talk about what they want, but you have to go out and get it," she remarks.

You sense that this is one woman who won't stop until she's done just that.

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-Laura Cassidy