Colorful handbags emphasize 'green' approach

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Although a growing number of people are intentionally buying more environmentally friendly products, others are doing so purely by coincidence.Take, for example, the unusual Nahui Ollin handbags at Cheryl W in Pittsburgh."People don't even know they're 'green,' " boutique owner Cheryl Weissberg says of the handbags. "I tell them, and it doesn't mean a darn thing. They like the looks."The eye-catching bags hark back to when people made chains out of chewing-gum wrappers. In this case, Mexico City artisans and craft workers use an ancient Mayan hand-weaving technique to turn unused, factory-rejected soda-bottle labels, potato-chip bags and candy wrappers into frame bags, totes, clutches, cell-phone cases and other accessories.Weissberg first saw the colorful bags at a trade show in New York a year and a half ago -- before eco-friendly fashion became a big national trend -- and has been selling them ever since."At that time, I wasn't even thinking about sustainability," she said. "It was before everybody went green. I just thought they were really cool and funky. They were just kind of fun and whimsical, like carrying a piece of art."Prices range from $27 for wristlets to $245 for large totes. They're sold at the store and on her Web site, www.thatgirlis.com.Nahui Ollin, based in Elberon, N.J., started making the items in 2003. As a result, much "pre-consumer waste" has been diverted from landfills, pointed out Danny Bitran, the company's vice president."A lot of people remember making gum-wrapper chains when they were young, so it's nostalgic to some," he said.No dyes or artificial coloring are used in the process, he said, and the finished products are durable and waterproof. Demand has become "tremendous," Bitran said, and now the items are sold at 1,100 stores in the United States and another 300 in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.(E-mail Pittsburgh Post-Gazette fashion editor LaMont Jones at ljones(at)post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)