Business World
March 23, 2009
Rags2Riches Inc., a social business enterprise creating eco-ethical products using scraps of fabric from the Payatas dumpsite and the labor of women in the area, came out with its newest Designer Line on March 17, this time with bag designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan.
The launch of the Aranaz collection at Greenbelt 5 featured the bags on mannequins wearing recycled newspaper dresses made by top designers Jojie Lloren, Avel Bacudio and Dong Omaga Diaz, as well as the students from the School of Fashion and the Arts (SOFA), which Ms. Aranaz co-founded.
While the original collection by Rajo Laurel — which served as the impetus of the entire enterprise — dealt with a refinement of the basket-weave technique familiar to the rug makers of Payatas, the new collection used macramé techniques whichi the women learned in three months of training at SOFA.
And whereas the "up-cycling" at the onset was meant to change the mindset of fashionistas that bags made out of rags could be chic (and eco-chic at that), this time around they needed no convincing.
"The Aranaz aesthetic, they’re bags that are meant to punch up your outfit, they’re supposed to be the eye-catchers of your outfit... My wish for Aranaz is to make beautiful handbags, it’s the same vision that I’ve set for the RIIR line. I wouldn’t say [it’s the] low-end [version] because it has the same love, the same passion, and the same technique. It’s aligned with more social awareness also... I believe in their cause. Me, myself, my business Aranaz deals with a lot of those types of communities. My own workers are pretty much like the Payatas women, they come from those types of areas, so it’s like a bigger venue to help people," Ms. Aranaz told BusinessWorld.
 The limited collection edition, featuring the Aranaz trademark rosettes and mother-of-pearl handle (the Le Rosette Tote is pegged at P5,500 and the Le Rosette Clutch is worth P5,650) as well as a new wooden-handle macramé bag named Lambat after the fisherman’s netting it resembles (Le Macrame Tote at P3,400), are worthy of a 1970s diva socialite and a present-day fashionista. Only 12 pieces of each design will be made available, each with a serial number, and an authentication certificate with the signatures of the designer and the "nanay" (the mother) who made it.
Meanwhile 200 pieces will be produced of the "classic collection," around 25 per style, including the casual Maria Rosa bags which also feature the flattish rosettes (a clutch sells at P1,400, a tote for P2,550), more Lambat tote bags (a small version for P950, a tote for P1,300), and the Aplaya twisted basket carry-all with leather handles (P2,300 medium-sized, P2,500 large), perfect for the beach or a garden party. Colors range from the neutral (white, coal, slate) to a bright robin’s egg blue, to warm hues of yellow, orange and red, a mellow pink or a mix of stripes, depending on the available scrap materials.
Ms. Aranaz noted that the workers work at a slower pace since they’re still getting acquainted with the new techniques. Only 30-40% of the target has been made to date. Given that these bags are made from scrap material — exempting the wood and mother-of-pearl handles — the bags are priced about 50% less than the usual Aranaz bag. But the more laborious handcrafting techniques, plus the handles, position them in the more high-end bracket.
"If you see it, you still know it’s an Aranaz bag, but the materials have a deeper story behind it. The [clientele is the] A-B market, in their late 20s to 50s. These ones are quite functional, they’re beach baskets, they’re tote bags, so you can use them for work, you can use them for school... We’re showing that we can actually make stylish, really fashionable and beautiful materials out of scrap material," said Ms. Aranaz.
Currently, the RIIR enterprise permanently employs 86 women, but considering the contractual helpers, the extended network numbers 300 members in total. The women may work as few as two to four hours a day, but those who put in around eight hours straight each day are able to earn P3,000 a week and up to P12,000 a month.
Production is expected to go up with the new collection out in the market, particularly as RIIR is putting up an online retail feature on its website come April. The latter is a direct result of their win for the BiD Challenge, a global business plan competition organized by the BiD Network Foundation, challenging entrepreneurs to develop and execute innovative business plans with growth potential, in order to stimulate local economic growth and generate jobs and income in emerging markets.
"Although our main thrust really is a partnership with the women of Payatas, we still want to operate as a business, it has to be saleable. We’re going to use the money that we won to scale up the business, and hopefully adopt more communities because of that, and also more markets abroad. Europe is almost going to start very soon. We just have to choose from three possible distributors who have 300 stores each. We can’t do every one, we can only do one, and maybe one-half [of stores]," said Reese Fernandez, executive vice-president of Rags2Riches, Inc.
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