In thinking about how to sell these bags to the wider world, I realized I would have to do something really different. There are already lots of websites selling “fair trade crafts” from latin america and all over the world. All of these sites and brands are telling essentially the same story: these people are poor, buy their products to help support them. In a way, that is the easiest story to tell.

        But that story doesn’t work for these bags. These bags do not beg to be bought. These are bags that a woman can only get by trekking up to the farthest corner of the jungle, way past her imagination and far beyond her comfort zone. This bag will directly connect her with another woman whose life is completely different and completely the same as hers. There is only one of each. They are hard to make and hard to find.

                        These bags are not for teenagers. They are not for women struggling to “fit in”. They are not for women seeking to flash their wealth around. These bags are for women who are seeking something meaningful. These bags are for the women who are wanting to make a difference.

I started thinking about what women want. Why do women buy the $3000 designer bags? Why do women ever believe in a brand or want to be associated with a brand? Looking at the demographic of women who have “arrived” who, having taken care of themselves and their families, can look around and ask, “How can I give meaning?” -what do they want in a brand? I was thinking about all the women in this demographic that I know, and I asked an Italian friend of mine in that demographic to also. We both came to the knowledge that women want to feel loved, important and powerful.

So that will be the story of the brand of these incredible bags: It is a brand for a hero-woman. The hero that looks beyond the everyday and seeks to make an impact and is rewarded with the knowledge that she is loved and important. Her handbag is a testament to her values and her uniqueness.

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