Doesn’t matter where you live, there’s always a yard sale, flea market, beach trip or fair to be had where you need to carry lots of stuff. You might not always want to throw these treasures into cheap plastic bags for a host of eco-friendly reasons, so you need options. And while there are lots of reusable and sustainably designed bags out there, how great are these? Just the name sucked me in: Fleabags.
Frustrated by the inconvenience and environmental hazards of accumulating several plastic bags while flea market shopping, Brown University grads Shira Entis, a fashion designer and Alex Bell, a lawyer, craved a convenient and fashionable tote that could fit all their wares.
Fleabags were designed as their ideal solution – “dapper, large, lightweight and sturdy carry-alls – that are also eco-minded,” in that they’re sourced in the U.S. and made in New York of certified organic cotton/hemp canvas, vegetable-tanned leather and water-based silkscreen ink. The gals also use no glues or toxic paints for their Fleabags, just good old fashion sewing.
The first run of Original Fleabags are made for Spring/Summer 2009 in Limited Edition by hand and with the Edition Number written on each bag. Four color ways are offered: White, Saddle, Coffee Bean and Pebble.
Newly created with both women still working their day jobs in New York City, they hope the line takes wings (but something bigger than a flea’s wings).
I caught up with them recently.
How do Fleabags work for yard sales/flea marketing/trips to beach?
We actually designed the bags originally for our own flea market trips! We just wanted something hot to look at and eco-friendly and convenient to lug around our purchases. There was a real blank spot in the marketplace. We designed Fleabags to be sturdy carryalls, large enough to fit a lot of things – towels, books, laptops – but still be easy and lightweight enough to throw over your shoulder and run out of the house. The organic canvas we use is heavyweight, and there are nickel feet on the bottom of the bag to protect the leather. The greatest thing about them is that they aren’t precious – you can throw them in the trunk of the car, take them to the beach, and they will hold up perfectly.
What was your main inspiration to design them?
I looked at a lot of things – tool bags, vintage luggage – and tried to design a woman’s version of a utilitarian object. Fleabags are vertically oriented, because I wanted them to elongate a woman’s silhouette while she carried it, not widen it as happens with horizontally-oriented bags. My background is in fashion design and I have been working in that industry for the last 4 years starting with an internship at Tuleh. Just like in high fashion, it was important that these bags were seamlessly crafted. When the details aren’t refined, customers notice it.
