This summer my sister watsapped me: “Do you want me to buy you a Wayúu handbag?” My first reaction was to say “a wa-what?” They are handbags, and the latest craze in Spain, they are in all magazines, and the new fashion accessory. So while she searched for hers to take a picture and show me, I went online and found this:
The Wayúu are a Colombian tribe from the Guajira region, and the handbags are handmade, knitted by the tribe’s women for at least 20 days. These handbags are unique artisanal pieces and they are inspired in nature, the geometric shapes are the identity of each lineage. I also looked at some images, and I selected few to show my sis which ones I would not mind to have, see my some of my favourites below.
She then showed me a pic of hers
a beautiful colourful example, with the very fashionable and this summer’s staple yellow, and she told me that whatever her contact has in stock is the choice I have, they are handmade, unique, and not custom made on request, so she sent me half a dozen choices (not that many left so late in the day, summer in Spain starts in May!)
My initial thought was to question if they were a bit too ethnic for my general style (my sister thinks I like the hippie look a lot more than I really do), then I worried about the colours in the London light which is not especially sunny and bright for most of the year, so when I made up my mind I went for a nicely knitted, quite detailed but in quiet colours, with the idea to be able to get more use out of it. See below.
I can’t wait to walk around London in my Wayúu and I have decided that when I see someone else sporting one, a fellow Spaniard or a Spanish holiday maker, appreciators too of the artisanal and unique, I will quietly salute them the same way bikers salute each other when travelling the World on a motorbike…
