HandCrafting Justice Wowed At NY Festival With Handmade Handbags From Recycled Materials

Thailand artisan woman. Photo by HandCrafting Justice.

Making people aware of the beauty of traditional artisan craftsmanship from around the world – often women from small, rural communities – HandCrafting Justice showed off at the NYC Green Festival last weekend with a collection of one-of-a-kind handbags made of recycled materials including telephone books, chip bags, and silk.

HandCrafting Justice is a nonprofit project of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd that markets over 1,000 different items through its website, wholesalers, and special events. Items sold include: handbags, clothing, jewelry, accessories, pottery, indigenous art, and toys.

HandCrafting Justice works with over 3,000 women in over 20 countries around the world, working within Fair Trade initiatives to make sure that they work in clean, safe environments and are paid fair living wages.

Featured at the festival were hand-woven handbags from recycled telephone books that were crafted by Filipino artisans from the Alay Kapwa Coop in Manila.

Recycled telephone handbags. Photo courtesy of HandCrafting Justice.

These unique handbags also featured bamboo handles and closed with wood bead latches. The bags were waterproof coated for stiffening and being safe in the rain.

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Eco-Friendly Fashion Designers Finding Unusual Materials For Making Sustainable Handbags

Vegan leather laptop bag by Matt & Nat accessories design.

What we wear always says a lot about who we are, what we care about, and of our sense of style.

While eco-style means making sure our clothes look great and are made from sustainable materials, it is also important to remember that our accessories need to be made the same way. And, what’s our top accessory – handbags!

I love handbags because besides looking good, they’re where we put all our stuff in, which hopefully is eco-friendly, too.

The tough thing about shopping for eco-friendly handbags - like all other things that are considered specialty items - is that they’re still hard to find in most department stores and boutiques.

Luckily, now many designers are using the internet as a way to get the word out about their sustainable handbags – from classic, urban, vintage, couture, and everything in between.

Some of this year’s unique trends in sustainable materials by eco-fashion designers include: vegan materials, repurposed candy wrappers, recycled plastic bottles, dead stock car upholstery (out-of circulation unused fabrics originally intended for use in American automobiles), and reclaimed tractor inner tubes.

Four of these unique designers letting their imaginations run wild are: Ecoist, Matt & Nat, Kim White, and Passchal.

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