Cafes Do Brasil Organic Coffee Sling Bag by The Wren

My etsy pick this week is thewren – an amazing store with organic, recycled and sustainable travel bags, purses, clutches and laptop bags.

Wendren, the owner/designer, started designing bags in December 2007 after she had gotten rave reviews on a bag she had made for herself.   She started taking orders and by March 2008 she had opened The Wren on etsy.  She says, “Since then I have grown with Wren and the current product range really feels as though it resonates with who I am and what I believe in. I enjoy challenging materials and finding interesting and unusual ways of interpreting and changing perceptions of them. I always try and keep sustainability and nature in mind and I think this is portrayed through my designs.”

The materials that she uses for her bags are carefully selected…actually carefully doesn’t even begin to describe the thought behind every single detail on her designs but for lack of a better word it will have to do. Each bag has a story and each one is completely unique.  European grain sacks from 100 years ago are used to make her antique linen bags, jute coffee sacks are used to make her travel bags and purses and unused Pretoria Portland Cement paper bags are used for her laptop bags.  All of the leftover fabric and materials from the larger bags are used to make her bird purses and her coffee clutches. 

Wendren says “I believe that a bag is a reflection of who you are and thus, each one is unique by its combination of fabrics and in the case of the coffee bags, well each fair trade coffee sack is unique by its number, print and design. Originality of these bags does not need to be made, it’s just there.”

You can read more about Wendren on her blog – and find out how she got into making bags, how she wraps her bags, how different bags came to be, upcoming plans for Wren and much more.

Posted by: Becca