Martania Bags

Paper cone bag

One of my favorite themes to explore is to give value to everyday objects and re-think them, expand on them, and play with the possibilities so it was exciting when Julio Torres let me dream and create with him, had this idea based on his show Color Theories, work on what object could be made as a piece of paper.

Thinking of products for this, I wanted to rethink an everyday tote, and I chose to make my life hard because there's no other way, designing a tote that could expand from a cone use to a side tote with the use of zippers. I started playing with paper, making cones, pleats, folds, made a couple of paper prototypes and then fabric prototypes in what ended up being a San Salvador, NYC, Berlin collaboration. That re-looked at the principles of paper like little holes in spiral notebooks, looking for a fabric material that felt paper-like, the child-like wonder of cutting paper with a patterned scissor, A LOT of trial end error in paper and in fabric, a pocket made with folds, and finally giant paper clips in a way that I would usually use metal for furniture design. Produced in El Salvador with Martania Bags, a bold place where colors would arrive with their significance. There's this moment that feels so magical when I see how all my practices intertwine with each other and they expand from each other.