ABOUT TRASHIOUS
OUR TRASH.
YOUR TREASURE.
Our story starts from a trash can. Literally. Not the best start for a high quality luxury bags and accessories brand you would say. On the contrary! Everyone is aware that trash has become a huge global environmental problem. So now, even more than ever, we believe it is time for all of us to join the growing zero-waste movement.
WE PROMISE YOU TRASH. GREEN TRASH.
With our undying love for great looking quality bags and accessories, and the urge to stop damaging our planet, we have started our journey to truly sustainable, cruelty free and circular alternatives for animal and synthetic leather. And ‘green’ trash is what we’ve found.
THINK OUTSIDE THE TRASH!
Our journey continues. While discovering more and more eco friendly leather and other fabrics that are made out of waste, our mission is to surprise you with many more fashionable treasures from our trash.
VEGAN, NON PLASTIC LEATHERS
WINE IS ALWAYS
THE ANSWER.
For us it sounded unreal. But if it was true, oh how much we wanted it! Who could ever have thought of wine leather? Well, someone in Italy did. Leather made of leftovers from wine production. Wine leather is soft, smooth, stable, 100% sustainable, almost feels like leather, and it can even be recycled!
AN APPLE
A DAY...
Yes correct. It does keep the doctor away. So let's eat lots of them! Because what you might not know, apples are not only good for your health, they also contribute to a better planet. Can you imagine? From the cores and skins discarded from the industrial food industry, apple leather is made! A sustainable alternative for animal and plastic leather. We know... madness.
CACTUS LEATHER.
A SHARP IDEA.
Even overseas we found ‘green trash’. 2 Mexican guys are transforming the leafs of the Nopal cactus into leather. Nopal is used for the treatment of diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity and hangovers, but also as a food. The leafs of this plant have always been thrown away, but now they are used to make cactus leather.
SHINE LIKE
A PINEAPPLE.
Muy impresionado. That’s what we were when we read about this beautiful material made of a byproduct from the pineapple fruit industry: pineapple leaves. Once the long fibres are removed from the leaves (these create the material’s beautiful texture) the leftover biomass is used as a natural fertilizer. Two waste products, two uses. With this, this leather alternative literally takes the crown in turning trash into treasures.
A-MAIZE-ING
Cornflakes, popcorn, tortilla chips. Just to mention a few. We love the huge variety in products made from corn! Recently we discovered our most favorite corn product ever: corn leather. Made from the waste of the food industry. A perfect addition to the materials we use for our bags & accessories collection don't you think? It shouldn't therefore come as a surprise we've also turned this waste into some beautiful treasures. For you.
FOUNDERS
No. Their personal stories don’t exactly start from a trash bin. Esther and Jolanda are friends ánd entrepreneurs, each with their own business. While discussing their daily challenges over lunch one day, they discovered they had - next to many other ones - another mutual business challenge; finding a bag that serves any purpose. From business meeting to happy hour or brunch; from laptop to lipstick.
So, with their backgrounds in building a brand from scratch, they decided to bundle their experiences and create their own favorite bag brand.
Main question however was: what materials would they use for their bags? Personally they liked leathery bags for their stylish appeal. But NO WAY they would settle for animal or synthetic leathers that would further damage our planet. Just think about it... even ‘natural’ leather isn’t as natural as many brands tell you so. If you put a leather bag in your closet without all of the chemical treatments they need, you might as well put a dead smelly animal in it. And then we haven’t even talked about all of the animal cruelties going on in the world when producing leather goods. Nor about the pollution as a result of today’s so called ‘vegan leather’ goods where animal leather has been replaced by synthetic (plastic) leather.
Having this goal in mind, they decided to start their search for cruelty free, sustainable, non plastic materials. Not only for business bags, but for bags to suit every occasion. Their journey started at the 2019 Dutch Design week in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, where they discovered a whole new world of leather alternatives that will change the future of sustainable fashion.
Generation NEXT
"The number of consumers aware of the impact of stuff on animals and the environment has increased tremendously since the Corona crisis. And we are happy to see that even our own children - teenagers - are more and more concerned about the climate. In the end, of course, that is also the generation we are doing it all for. Therefore, we asked this target group what they thought of our collection, and whether there was anything they were still missing.
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We were pleasantly surprised to hear that they really like our timeless bags and the story behind them. But a Moonbag, for example, was still missing. And although they were willing to save up for a bag, they also wanted an entry-level model. Together we developed the Moonbag; a trendy model in a minimalist design. A bag that is completely in line with our timeless basic collection, and which, in addition to this young generation, is affordable for a much wider audience.
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Our goal is to continue to involve youngsters in the development of our Generation NEXT collection. And not just because we find it super fun to work with them and get inspired by them. We are convinced that together with them we can accelerate the awareness of the importance of true sustainability even more.
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Esther and Jolanda"