re-collect: repurposed inner tube bags

Re-Collect from Brighton UK hand sews bags with an industrial chic aesthetic. Their offerings include messengers, handbags, laptop sleeves, etc. The line has a very modern look to recycled inner tubes, bike treads and seat belts. Designer Katcha Bilek even teaches workshops to teach anyone how to turn unwanted items into eco fashion!

the hemptress: haute handbags go green

The Hemptress, a smart eco fashionable handbag company out of Los Angeles, launched this January with sustainability and eco mindfulness at it's forefront. Hemptress is the design team of Håkan and Arlene Nilsson, an eco & fashion forward duo. The Nilsson's helps you go green by offering bags made from hemp and recycled materials. Their company was founded on fair trade values with careful attention to where each material is sourced right down to the recycled bonded leather trim, recycled nylon & metal zippers, low impact dyes and hemp label. Hemptress also offers a vegan collection, which has a hemp/RPET lining. Their hangtags, business cards, and all collateral are printed on recycled paper with soy ink, and our shipping boxes are made from 100% post consumer waste. A portion of their profits are donated to animal rights group as well as Vote Hemp. So Haute.

ashley watson: recycled handbag perfection

Ashley Watson has been a Haute Nature favorite since her inception. And for all eco & handbag lovers everywhere, she never fails to please with her new designs.

recycled plastic handbags: radical recycks

Radical Recycks

weidesign netherlands: felt bags

WeiDesign is a new label launched during Dutch Design Week offers modern wool felt and vegetable-tanned leather bags. Top bag can house magazines.

green guru: messenger bag haiku giveaway

Lucky you guys!! Green Guru Gear is hosting this giveaway for the fabulous Cycler messenger bag. Haul everything in this sharp repurposed bag made from sewn bike inner tubes. The Cycler has a wide, padded shoulder strap with a quick release adjustment, interior laptop organizer, PETE Aerospace mesh back panel with high performance padding & many organizer pockets. HAIKU theme for the win: biking. Please leave email in: poet(at)yahoo(dot)com format to be reached. Happy holidays!! oh yeah, to make things sweeter you will also win one of their shopper billboard tote bags!

ora bags: recycled leather backpacks

Ora Bags from Vancouver Island Canada

flip & tumble: reusable bags

Flip & Tumble was founded by Hetal Jariwala and Eva Bauer, designers who met while attending Stanford’s graduate Product Design program. Both were trying to make the switch to reusable bags, but were struggling to bring their bags with them when they shopped. “Often shopping trips were unexpected, or we simply just forgot. As we started talking to people, we learned we weren’t alone. Lots of people owned reusable bags, but those bags often weren’t getting used. It was just too easy to forget.”
“We wanted to develop the perfect one bag that you could keep with you all the time. The ideal bag had to be compact and work for grocery shopping, but we also wanted it to work for other places, such as a nice restaurant, or a day at the museum.”

With market research, they found that most bags were geared to just grocery shopping, and were cumbersome to compact. Using ripstop nylon was a no-brainer, it had the perfect combination of strength and compactability the stuffsack is made from a stretchable material so one can easily cram alarge bag back into a compact form.

Their final product, titled the 24-7 bag, sells online for $15 through their website. Over its lifetime, each 24-7 bag can easily spare the earth from over 1,000 disposable plastic bags.

Personally, I like the dual color tones of each bag!!

refashioned bags: book giveaway

For the month of December, HauteNature will offer quite a few giveaways for the holidays. Gear up your HAIKU talents, because this is the first one. This fabulous book, 'Refashioned Bags' by Faith & Justina Blakeney is perfect for the DIYer! With patterns and instructions for making bags from almost anything, this could be your holiday present, or you could regift you a Do It Yourselfer in your life. As always, leave your (emailaddressatwhatever) after your HAIKU poem entry in the comments. HAIKU topic, 'handbag'.

The book published by Potter Craft, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group at Random House is one of many books they publish with eco-friendly ideas and DIY projects.

Refashioned Bags, shows you how to create carryalls, clutches, laptop bags, totes, all with helpful diagrams and step-by-step instructions. For the longtime DIYer or for the first time crafter, bags are one of the easiest accessories to make and require little more than a needle, thread, and everyday items you can find in the closet, garage, attic, or flea market. That's why the sister authors of 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim & Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special show you how to make boutique-ready bags on the cheap. In their new book, the Blakeney sisters twist and weave, turn inside-out, and reappropriate just about anything and everything to fashion radical accessories with eco style and and an ecological message.

feuerwear: recycled fire hose bags

Feuerwear from Germany has a beautiful color range for their collection of upcycled firehose bags. From bright vibrant red, soft faded orange to clean white, the used fire hoses give each bag wonderful character. Feuerwear manufactures messengers, handbags, organizers, filofax's, shoppers and fanny packs. With indestructible durability, these bags would make an awesome gift for the holidays!

Thanks Veshengro

elvis & kresse: recycled firehose bags

Elvis & Kresse from Amsterdam, utilize waste fire hoses turning them into chic red handbags, toiletry bags wallets and belts.

jack & marjorie: handbag give away

Repurposed Jack & Marjorie tote bag GIVEAWAY! This lovely tote bag is handcrafted in Toronto from recycled military surplus materials. J&M construct their durable bags with military tents, cotton tent fabric, wool blankets, duffle bags, parachutes, sling straps, webbing and the like, the bag linings are always organic cotton twill. The repurposed 30-40 year old fabric has a rich character. This particular bag for the giveaway (HauteNature is hosting), has a black organic cotton lining, recycled wool and recycled tent fabric. Again, this is a HAIKU contest, so give me your best shot, write one about military service or service in general. (Not war) This can be a late exercise for Veterans Day. Best of luck readers! Winner announced Nov. 28th.

cha cha handbags: recycled leather

ChaCha Lifestyle from Toronto Canada, makes handmade and one-off leather handbags, headbands. This new eco-friendly accessories label created by young designer Lori Chalmers', includes woven totes made out of salvaged leather.

cyclus: recycled pangolin backpack

Cyclus has created this handmade, fair trade backpack 'Pangolin' for men and women. The backpack made from recycled inner tubes of trucks has Armadillo like overlapping parts, it seems like a Pangolin. A Pangolin lives in tropical Africa & Asia, an animal similar looking to our Armadillo. The parts are alternately covered with recycled inner tubes of trucks attached to each other with a wing nut. Large capacity bag with pockets for notebooks, pens, MP3 and cell phone with double adjustable back straps and handle. The interior has canvas storage pockets in different sizes, some close with Velcro. Equipped with a convenient to transit the earplugs of your mp3 player, I-Pod or phone. Closes with 3 magnetic closures. The back is anatomically shaped so that the back pack fits on your back comfortably. This backpack is made by people from Colombia with a social disadvantage, such as single mothers, refugees and Indians of the Camentsa tribe. They can count good working conditions and pay above the minimum wage. Fair trade! Available at Wannekes.

heather heron: travel bags

Repurposed Weekender Nomad Travel bag by Heather Heron constructed from recycled army fabric.

tom bihn: cork fabric bags

Tom Bihn

rickshaw bagworks

Rickshaw Bagworks a San Francisco based company produces stylish, sustainable messenger bike bags. Their bags are designed to optimize cutting and eliminate material waste and made locally in San Francisco with domestically sourced fabrics. Many styles are entirely recyclable.

erin templeton: recycled leather handbags

Erin Templeton a handbag designer from Vancouver, constructs a range recycled leather bags. Not all of the bags in the collection are recycled, so be choosy if you purchase making sure to snap up a sustainable version.

bandaderodadura: inner tube bags

Bandaderodadura's bike bags are awesome!

freitag: limited edition bags

Swiss bag company Freitag has launched a limited edition range of bags made of used exhibition banners from leading art galleries and museums. The bags will feature banners from Tate Modern in London, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (top image), Palazzo Grassi in Venice and MoCA Los Angeles.
Every week in August, Freitag will launch a new collection of Limited Art Edition bags for sale on their website and at the following galleries on the dates below:
06.08.2009 TATE Modern, London
13.08.2009 MORI ART Museum, Tokyo
20.08.2009 PALAZZO GRASSI, Venice
27.08.2009 MoCA, Los Angeles