We’re almost set to launch “Statement Makers!”
Finally – and we’re over the moon about these new bags. We’ll be posting photos soon enough, as well as making them available for purchase on our website. In the meantime, I always get asked about how I started this whole Rebagz thing, so I thought now was as good a time as any to write about it. We’ve had lots of successes – and yet we had to deal with the economic splat just like everyone else did.

Warning: it’s a long story, so I’m going to break it up into a few parts. Otherwise you’d be scrolling for days…

How It All Began…Part 1
I’d been making hand-crafted jewelry with my friend and co-author Christine Calla (“Beading Vintage Style Jewelry”/Sterling Publishing) and wanted to expand the company. Christine had grown up in the Philippines and she suggested I head there with my ideas for handbags. I originally began making my samples out of fabric, but when I discovered this beautiful recycled weave being made by a fair-trade organization, it just made sense to work with them to create some of my designs.

I started the rice sack line, however, from absolute scratch, literally roaming the markets in search of rice merchants to see what sacks they had – and then trying to convince the rice sellers to sell the used ones to me to make handbags. That request got a lot of strange looks. Yes, I was the crazy American woman who wanted to buy the empty sacks of rice, not the full ones.

Given that I did humanitarian work in Mexico following the Zapatista rebellion and that my mama was a serious recycler, the choice to work with recycled materials was an obvious one. You have to remember that people have been using rice, flour and feed sacks for hundreds of years to make rough clothing.

For design ideas, I read magazines, go to museums, go to the mall – all these things give me ideas. But for the most part I simply consider what I’d like in a bag (that’s how our All-in-One Wallet and Sport Pouch came about) and also what shapes and colors please my eye.

I also like creating bags with curves because my corporation’s called Half the Sky Designs LLC, as in the saying, “Women hold up half the sky.” That’s why I created the Cinchy Totes with curves and designed our circular award-winning “Life is a Circle” Bag.

In case you’re looking for Part 2 and Part 3, just follow the links. (If you’d like a sneak peek of our Statement Makers, check out the new slide show on our Rebagz homepage.

XOXO Marty