Here’s a way to do some good while making a stylish, albeit bohemian, statement: invest in a Wayuú Taya hand-woven bag made by the indigenous women of Venezuela. Katy Perry sported the Chünü’ü messenger recently while attending Coachella and it looked great on her. “Chünü’ü” in Wayuunaiki means humming bird–which explains the bag’s color combination of fuchsia, green, blue and orange. I think this bag is a great weekend hold-all–perfect for trips to the country or, as Perry illustrates here so well, music festivals from Austin to Palm Springs. Indie spirits accepted!
More importantly, however, is that the proceeds of each purchase benefit the Wayuú indigenous people. The bags are hand-made by Wayuú indigenous women at Shukumajaya, the foundation’s women center that helps educate women on parenting and nutrition, family planning and hygiene. Weavers are responsible for designing their own bags, so they are one-of-a-kind. The work is all manual and the materials used are the same that have been used for the past hundreds of years. It takes a Wayuú woman eight hours a week for 20 days to make each bag.
Sixty-five percent of the purchase price of each bag goes to the women and the program; the rest is for production and exporting costs (the bags are shipped from Venezuela). Keep in mind: all bags are one-of-a-kind so there’s no guarantee of an exact match. But in a world of cookie-cutter bags, it’s nice to have something completely unique, right?
$120, available at www.wayuutaya.org
One of the sweetest and future best handbag of this season
her top is ugly!
Great find…I appreciate indigenous and unique fashion. I love that it’s handmade and that you are also helping women to earn a living. The price is great, it’s just a matter of deciding which color to pick.
THAT BAG IS MADE IN COLOMBIA.
Wayuu community is in northern colombia not only venezuela as you say.
so please first learn and read where that bags are from.
then write.
Wayúu Tayá has concentrated its efforts in assisting the Wayúu, an indigenous group of over 450,000 people, located in the Guajira Peninsula of northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela.
Wayúu’s, commonly referred to as Guajiros, are an Amerindian ethic group that have been able to avoid European acculturation over the centuries. The Guajira region is characterized by being very dry and arid, as well as extremely poor in most rural areas.