Bag of dreams

I dream of a retail scene where plastic bags are almost passé. And I know I am not the only one. In the past year, in an effort to lessen the widespread use of plastic bags in the purchase industry, stores and malls have come up with their own shopping bags made of canvas or some other long-lasting material that can be toted around, thus lessening the need for earth-choking plastic. 

The Eastwood Mall is the latest retail haven to put forward their bid for making the metro a greener place. Recently, the mall launched their Enviro-chic Bag, a huge, sturdy canvas shopper that, arguably, trumps other eco totes available.

For one, the Enviro-chic bag doesn’t come emblazoned with a huge, wince-inducing brand logo. And second, this bag really lives up to its name. As far as eco-totes are concerned, Eastwood’s Enviro-chic bag is the most, well, chic, considering that Kevin Tan, commercial division head of Megaworld Corporation and promoter of this project, had asked designer Rajo Laurel to come up with the bag’s design. “I was casually talking to Rajo one day and was telling him about how I wanted to come up with something like this and he was really interested. Within months, he already came up with the design for the bag.” The canvas tote comes with a colorful macramé handle that fringes down over the body and a small wooden insignia that signifies the number of the bag — only 500 were made.

But the real heart of the bag is not its aesthetics but the process by which it was made. Each Enviro-chic bag is crafted and serialized by the women of Payatas (now the site for one of the biggest garbage dumps in the metro) for Rags2Riches, a social business enterprise organized by Ateneo’s Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan and Laurel himself that has been “creating social statements with style.” With Laurel’s design vision, Rags2Riches (RIIR) has given Payatas women who weave rugs out of scrap cloth a new, albeit more exciting, work objective. Instead of making rugs, these women now create colorful bags and purses that are being sold in Manila’s most stylish establishments. And now, they’ve also got Eastwood Mall’s Enviro-chic bag under their belt.

Aside from using recycled scraps for the macramé handle, RIIR also used recycled wood for each numbered insignia. The recycled elements and serial factor signify another novelty: each of Eastwood’s Enviro-chic bags are unique and part of a limited-edition collection. “Each bag makes a one-of-a-kind statement. And they’re designer bags that are also trendy,” says Tan. He also revealed that the first 50 bags sold within the first 24 hours. And that doesn’t count the reservations. During the launch, three auspiciously-numbered bags were sold in a silent auction: numbers 1, 88 and 500 (marked “D” which is the number in Roman numerals). Just to prove the desirability of each bag, Tan reveals that these special totes, which were priced at P1,500 pre-auction, sold for an average of P10,000 each. The remaining 497 bags, however, are selling for P600 each in a booth at the ground floor of the Eastwood Mall. (You get special discounts at certain Eastwood Mall stores if you bring the bag with you while shopping.)

It’s also an added boon that all proceeds for this chic reusable tote go to the Payatas Women and Red Cross. Each bag also comes with a card that indicates the name of the Payatas woman responsible for creating your eco-friendly style statement. Expounds Tan, “The card makes you realize that there’s also a story behind every bag and hopefully opens your eyes to the fact that there is so much you can do for the environment and the community.”

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