Lauren Santo Domingo, the co-founder of fashion sales site Moda Operandi, has tapped 11 leading designers to reinterpret classic woven mochila bags. Esteemed fashion houses including Valentino and Maison Martin Margiela have gone tribal for the BeLive Wayuu Mochila Project.
Mochila bags are a kind of knapsack handwoven by the Wayuu women living in Northern Colombia. It’s exciting to see such refined European labels taking their cues from these traditional artisans and giving their designs a little fashion forward flair. These handbags have forced most of the designers to step out of their comfort zone and that makes these accessories seem even more daring and fresh.
The results are stunning, but you’ll pay a premium for them. These designer made traditional purses are much steeper than most mochila handbags at $5000 a piece. Rather than looking at them as expensive handbags, perhaps we should consider that price as a very generous donation to the charities the BeLive Wayuu Mochila Project works with.
More than 30 charities in Colombia will benefit from the sale of the handbags. If you want to help out and own one of these limited edition purses sign up to Moda Operandi to gain access to the sale.
