Meet The Hemptress - Diva Of Ethically Made Handbags

My name is Elena, and I'm a bag-a-holic. That's a line recently used by my friend Lynn Colwell, from CelebrateGreen.net when admitting her small problem with collecting reusable shopping bags. I have a similar attraction to beautiful, ethically made handbags. In my work as an Editor, I get to review many handbags claiming green status. Some come pretty close to being super eco-friendly, but very few combine an ethical design status as well as a keen eye for design. One of the designer that manage to combine beautiful style and ethical functional design is Arlene Nilsson, the brains and beauty behind Hemptress.

Check out the entire collection HERE.

About The Company

After three years in development, Hemptress^TM, Inc. finally launched in January, 2010. Hemptress^TM is a contemporary fashion handbag and accessory brand from Los Angeles, who's bags are primarily made out of hemp. Many have "reborn" leather trim (repurposed from recycled leather) and they are all luxuriously lined with a silk/hemp blend lining, except for the vegan collection, which has a hemp/RPET lining. Even our high quality zippers are from recycled sources, and we use factories that adhere to fair trade practices. But we don't stop there. Our labels are made of hemp, our hangtags, business cards, and all collateral are printed on recycled paper with soy ink, and our shipping boxes are made from 100% post consumer waste. We will also be donating a portion of our profits to an animal rights group as well as Vote Hemp. What is really innovative about Hemptress^TM, is that our line is Fashion-forward AND Eco-friendly. We focus heavily on trend analysis, so these fashion-forward bags are doubly sustainable, and will stay stylish for years to come.

What's So Green?

• 100% hemp body
  
  
•  Some of our non-vegan collections have "reborn" leather trim made from recycled leather mixed with cotton & denim fibers and coated with Polyurethane. Specially formulated so it is lead free.
  
  
• VEGAN Sonja Collection: Lined with 65%hemp/35%recycled PET (recycled plastic bottles)
  
  
• All other Collections: Lined with 60% hemp/40% silk (looks like silk, but is strong like hemp)
  
  
• All of the internal nylon zippers are made from recycled nylon.
  
  
• All external metal zippers are of the very highest quality (because a bag is only as sustainable as its zipper)
  
  
• All fabric is dyed with low impact dyes
  
  
• All stiffeners are made from natural fiber instead of cardboard or PVC.
  
  
• Factories adhere to fair trade practices
  
  
• Label is made from 100% hemp
  
  
• Hangtags and all promotional material are made from recycled paper and printed with Soy & Vegetable zero-VOC inks
  
  
• All of the fabrics come from NE china, and are shipped directly to our factory in SE china and then warehoused in Los Angeles, so there is not too great of a carbon footprint created by shipping all over the map.
  
  
• Shipping boxes are made from 100% post consumer waste and we will be shipping to buyers using a Carbon Neutral Shipping program.

Check out the entire collection HERE.

Enjoy!