It was June and my friend L. was waiting for me sitting on one of the terraces in the center of Palma when I saw a Kenyan bag for the first time.
He was hanging from the chair. It was a beige bag, worn, with one of the handles almost broken and, even so, it seemed to me the most special bag I had ever seen.
L. told me that it belonged to her mother, that she had worn it a lot during the 80s and that no matter how hard she tried to find a new model, she couldn't. They never had the same finish, nor the same shape, nor the same fall.
And that's where our little obsession began.
We began to wonder how they were made, who made them, where they came from, why they were not easily found.
And in that search we discovered a basketry in the old town of Palma that had had the bags. The owner of that small shop full of beautiful baskets, but different from the bags we were looking for, called them Kenyatas.
And it was then that we were pulling the thread that would take us to the place in the world where they are made: Kenya.
Over time we have come to understand that if they are manufactured in Kenya it is not by chance.
It is one of the places in the world where the ideal weather conditions exist for the Agave Sisalana plant to grow, from which sisal fiber is created.
Little by little, all the pieces came together.
We began to learn about their manufacturing process, how sisal is dyed, why they are so durable or why they have specific handles.
And since then, for a few years now, we have been working with cooperatives that make bags by hand.
Women who carefully weave sisal reflecting and modulating the Kenyan Kiondo tradition with the functional bag.
A unique artisan work that results in baskets that do not understand chain production or exact pantones.
Bags that represent a conscious purchase and that become almost collector's items, because they are never the same as each other.
In short, bags with which we maintain an eternal crush.
