It is a true privilege to have avianca, one of Colombia’s most visible companies as a platform to design a product with a circular model in mind and social responsibility at its core. avianca’s brief was clear: they wanted something made locally and inspired by Colombia’s rich cultural heritage. 

From the beginning we sought to create a product that would be visually outstanding and of the utmost quality so that customers would collect, keep and reuse. During the design process we brought in the indigenous Guna Dule women of Colombia, our long standing artisan partners to hand sew 8 designs created by us but inspired by their traditional mola textiles. The final eight textiles were then digitized in our studio in Bogotá and translated into patterns for fabric production. 

All production materials had to be local and sustainable so we began to put all the pieces together. With Lafayette, a textile manufacturer using clean processes, we identified a durable fabric made from recycled PET bottles. We found a small family owned workshop called Terpiel in Bogotá that would be interested in creating inclusive jobs as a result of our partnership. Lastly, we went back to the Guna Dule community and set up a series of educational workshops funded by royalties paid to the Guna Dule of Colombia from the project. The Guna Dule women will be compensated by receiving a royalty on each bag made.

• All workshops with the Guna Dule community will be ongoing while the contract with avianca lasts. 
• All workshops are managed by the Guna Dule organization: ASOGUNADULE: Asociación Onmaggendnega de la nación Gunadule de Colombia with the support of ASIOMOLA: Asociación indígena de mujeres Artesanas.
• 20 women are leading the workshops and a total of 220 women from all 3 reserves, Arquia, Caiman Bajo and Caiman Alto are participating in the workshops.
• Lafayette sustainability information