My quest continues to find an appealing shoulder bag made from recycled materials, reclaimed fabrics, or in some other manner that makes the world safer for truth, justice and the worldchanging way, while standing up to the rigors of my megacity aesthetics. A few new entries:

Salvation Sacks, sourced from vintage fabrics and other salvaged fashion goods, with support structure (like the bag bottoms) made from recycled materials. Bag design process described as "scour, cut, combine, sew, adorn, strap, tag." These are completely excellent one-of-a-kind bags -- I'll need to keep an eye on the site to snag the perfect one.

Zuss Fashion Design: Stuff from recycled inner tubes. "Gothic rock punk fetish alternative rave recycled wearable art." What can I add to that, really? I'm fond of this Moon Walker backpack, despite the resonance of the name to a certain recent celebrity trial.

Laptop Bags from Hip and Zen made from "renewing" plastic bags of varied colors. And very reasonably priced just under $40. Don't have a laptop, but these look nice. (via TreeHugger)

Adorable-looking cloth wallets by blissen (aka designer Jill Bliss), made from thrift store fabric finds.

How about Freitag bags; made from recycled tarps, seatbelts and other things.

http://www.freitag.ch/index_frames.php

Posted by: Neil on June 16, 2005 9:45 AM

Heya Neil: I do love Freitags, and have nearly bought one about 3 different times. (See, if I actually buy the bag, then my quest is over, and what fun would that be? )

Freitag, Demano and Used Rubber are all mentioned in my first post on my hunt for the grail of green bags, http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001771.html, linked to the word "quest" above.

Posted by: Emily Gertz on June 16, 2005 10:01 AM

Emily,
how about Alchemy Goods?
http://www.alchemygoods.com/
Their recycled rubber bags are less fetish/goth-y than Zuss, and list the % of recycled content on the label.

Posted by: Justus on June 17, 2005 9:39 AM

those alchemy bags are good-looking. thanks for the pointer.

my personal tastes run away from the recycled seat belts, because they seem to add a lot of weight to bags. nyc is not so prone to purse-snatchings these days that I need a bag strap with the heft of an automotive safety device.

def. some good looking bags, though.

Posted by: Emily Gertz on June 17, 2005 3:39 PM

Cool! I love it when style and ethics go hand-in-handbag.

Love these folks, too:

http://www.vyandelle.com/main.htm

Bags and accessories made from reclaimed billboard material. Cool patterns (imagine sticking your eyes right up close to the TV) and obviously weather-resistant in the extreme.

Posted by: Colin on June 18, 2005 4:20 PM

Definitely check out Jade Planet-- for beautiful fairly-traded vegan bags made out of "treetap"-- a combination of sustainably harvested rubber and cotton. They're incredibly durable-- and have just the right kind of pockets! www.jadeplanet.net

Posted by: Andi on June 20, 2005 9:51 AM