Recycling is all well and good, but reusing is even This doesn’t mean they’ve lost sight of the indi-better. Escama, a company that sells remarkably viduals involved, however. Each bag comes with a cute handbags made from soda can pull tabs and tag inside printed with the name of the woman who crocheted cord, may not use the whole can, but made it, and you can look up each crochet artist’s they make a good start. Crocheting with tabs is a bio on their website. traditional craft in Brazil, and Escama’s unlikely “Promoting the cooperatives and the individual founders (two American men, Andy Krumholz and artist is fundamental to what we are about,” says Eric Pedersen, and a Brazilian woman, Socorro Krumholz. Next in the lineup are a few mystery Leal Schwiderski) knew a good thing when they products (“I won’t let the cat out of the bag, but saw it. Working directly with the women in Brasilia’s they’re killer designs,” Krumholz confides) as well Cia do Lacre and 100 Dimensão cooperatives, the as an online how-to for Escama’s many crochet-three friends adapted the traditional designs into addicted fans. Now that’s what we call fair trade. what Escama calls a “fashion-forward accessory” —Arwen O’Reilly (but what we call a really cool clutch).
Escama means “scale” in Portuguese — as in fish >>Escama Bags: escama.com scale — but it could just as easily refer to scale of production. Though warned by apparel industry experts that mass-producing handmade items with co-ops was a disastrous idea, Escama has made over 3,000 bags in four different styles to date with impressive quality control, and they’ve expanded their workforce from 12 to 50 in the past year.
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