how it began
One mochila.
A whole love story.
Founder's letter
I traveled through Latin America and fell in love with its women, the ones who weave colors out of cotton, who dye fibers with the plants of their land, who turn thread into pillow covers, blankets, bracelets, and above all, mochilas.
The first time I traveled to Colombia, I met my husband on the plane. I spent three weeks in the north of the country and instantly fell in love with a bag I saw everywhere, the mochila. From that moment on, I was searching for my first one.
I met a girl whose sister owned a Colombian mochila brand. I wished to buy one from her, but the price was beyond what I could give. So I kept looking. I found wool mochilas with beads. I traveled back to Colombia to visit my husband, and we drove to Ráquira, near Villa de Leyva, where the streets were full of mochilas. Still, none of them were mine.
un regalo
And then, a gift from Barranquilla.
My first mochila came to me as a present from my husband's family. It wasn't bought. It was given. And in that moment I understood something I had been circling for years: these bags don't belong to a shelf. They belong to a story, a hand, a lineage.
"She didn't sell it to me. She gave it to me. That changed everything."
la misión
When I quit my job, I asked myself one question: what do I want to bring into the world?
In the Netherlands and across Europe, so much of what we wear and live with is fabrique-made, fast, anonymous, disconnected from the earth. I wanted to build a bridge back. To Colombia. To slowness. To nature. To the indigenous people who still live aligned with the rhythms of the land, and who weave that alignment into every mochila.
So I started looking for someone who could sell me mochilas to bring home with me. One day, a family came into my husband's sourdough bakery, and one of them turned out to be in direct contact with the artisans. Every mochila could be made by request. She brought beautiful pieces with her, and we chose the ones that would travel with us back to the Netherlands.
The year before, I had already begun working with a supplier from the Sierra Nevada, sourcing Arhuaco and Kankuamo mochilas. Now, our pieces also include Wayuu mochilas in 100% cotton and silk, and mochilones, the larger ones, perfect for a laptop or a baby's belongings.
This is my collection. Each piece carries the hand of the woman who made it.
my mission
To inspire one woman, then another, to choose a handmade bag over fast fashion.
Conscious shopping is not a trend. It's a return, to the earth, to the maker, to the meaning of what we carry.