I’m really happy with what we’ve got lined up. We had such problems with the bag when we were last active, back in March, that I said we should really take our time find some good stuff. It took a lot longer than I thought, but we’ve got some gorgeous, amazing jewellery. You won’t believe it’s as good as it is, until you see it for real. I know because that’s exactly what happened to us. We chose it because the photos were nice and because sales really help the jewellery artists back in Lima, Peru, but when it arrived we just stopped what we were doing and talked about it for ages! It’s lovely when that sort of thing happens.

A similar thing happened with our delivery of Frank&Faith clothes, and they’re also some of the most ethical clothes we saw anywhere – and that includes the ones that look like they’re made from hessian and jute off-cuts by a not-very-skilled person. We’re all for supporting re-use (as you can see from our bags and jewellery) but we’ve decided to leave the more soviet designs to others; we’re trying to do something that’s comfortable, beautiful and elegant because if we’re serious about living in an ethical, sustainable way, we should encourage design, skill and beauty. Like all art, it lifts us from the humdrum and makes us, and others, think.

MooFree bags are exactly that – free of cows – plus the cows remain free!  They’re a collection of fashion bags that make PU sexy, and extremely re-usable.  We think this is the best selection of leather-free fashion bags that we’ve ever had, and the sales have been really good so far, which suggests you agree.  Thanks, it’s not been achieved without a lot of hard work.  We like you.

The problem is, people like all sorts of bags and many people want bags that look like leather but are actually totally leather-free.  We started off with Rubber Cow bags, and they were great until we (and they) found out that some of the elements of the bag had animal products in them.  We’ve worked hard to find a replacement, and think we’ve done so with our MooFree bags.  As far as we know, and we’ve done a lot of sleuthing, they’re totally animal-free.  Nevertheless, they are made in China, which doesn’t have a good record in looking after its bag-making workers.  The company we’re working with is a good solid Newcastle company with good people, but it’s still not ideal.  However, we think it’s better to buy a leather-free bag, than a leather bag that probably made under worse conditions, but you may prefer have a look at dA-LaTA bags.  Hopefully, you’ll find something you like.

Our aim, however, is to make our own bags.  This is not easy.  We are not bag designers (though we do have a design background), or artists/craftspeople.  We need help.  If you’d like to work with us to make 100% fashion bags from recycled , animal-free materials, in the UK or under a fair trade scheme, then please, please tell us and we’ll do all we can to make it happen.  There are lots of jute bags out there, and lots of not-very-good recycled bags too.  Both good and bad get comments like, “Mmm, that’s clever”, or “What a great idea.”  But nothing about them is usually compared to genuine (but non-ethical) fashion bags.  We think it should be normla for an ethical fashion handbag to get comments like, “Ooh, this ethical thing’s pretty cool, actually.  I’ve got to have one of those!”

Our next job is to get the message out that it *is* possible to buy gorgeous bags that are also ethical. To do that will take a long time, but we have a plan and we’ll get there in the end. Lots of people to write to, lots of ads to write, lots of people to talk to. We’re going to have to pace ourselves.

If you want to help, just blog about us, or talk to your friends about us, or chat about us on a forum / Facebook etc. Anything you can do will really help us let people know that they don’t have to compromise if they want a really nice bag. It’s a little thing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still something. And I think it’s something good.

I carefully crafted a Facebook advert to let people know about the new site (which you may have noticed we have kind of put live). I got the text and photo exactly how I wanted them. And then I attached completely the wrong web address and posted the advert live to 156,000 people. Yes! I really did!

I actually posted the web address for the development site, so anyone who clicked on it would have seen all the gory details of the new things I was developing, with weird colours, and everything out of alignment. I can only imagine that they would have been rather un-impressed. Ho hum.

Anyway, we’re nearly there. Tomorrow the site is really, really live and we’ll see what happens. Tell everyone! Help fill the ethical world with beautiful bags!

Seriously though, we’ll find someone else, we’re just a little up against the clock. We’ve got 16 days find a supplier, get an agreement, order the bags and have them delivered. Pah. Easy…