on a recent trip to maine i checked out a new shop called daytrip society (awesome store!) where i found the cutest little clutch made by escama studio in san francisco. it took me a minute to realize what it was made of – aluminum can pull-tabs. the tag on it, pictured above, asks ‘who made your bag?’ and then presents the answer on the other side where the creator signed it.

on the website i was able to look her up by name to find her picture and bio where i learned that “eveny” is brazilian, a widow with four children and was unskilled and unemployed until she began working with this group, which is a women’s cooperative in brazil. according to the website, “Escama Studio combines sustainable design with fair trade principles to create a new breed of alluring fashion accessories”. i love everything about this – the artistry, the personal touch, the recycling – and reading her story made it all the better.  i was even able to send her an email.

the site offers this info about their business:

Based in San Francisco, Escama Studio works directly with two Brazilian craft cooperatives — Cia do Lacre and As Panteras do Lacre — to design and produce these sleek, modern pieces using traditional crochet techniques and recycled aluminum pull-tabs.

Industry experts warned us that we’d run out of aluminum pull-tabs and advised that we’d need to use machines to get consistent quality.

Luckily experts are sometimes wrong.

Four years and 70,000 bags later we’ve learned that craftswomen can do something that machines can’t: make consistently beautiful bags that are at the same time very personal. We’ve also learned that the world’s abundance of ‘junk’ offers a lot of creative potential.

check out their site to see more of their offerings, and some fun fashion inspiration photo galleries.

01 Sep This entry was published on September 1, 2008 at 7:31 pm. It’s filed under photo entries, random stuff and tagged daytrip society, escama, fair trade, fashion, green, inspiration, purse, recycling, whomadeyourbag. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.