“The whole idea is to luxe up our products,” Yoling Sevilla, president and CEO of The Leather Collection, says on the launch of two new product lines under the GREAT Women brand during the recent Manila FAME trade show.
The GREAT Women brand, otherwise known as the Gender Responsive Economic Actions for the Transformation of Women, is founded by the ECHOsi Foundation in collaboration with the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) with the objective of elevating the quality of goods produced by women micro-entrepreneurs from different regions of the country.
The Bagobo Textile collection takes pride in its feature of the inabal, a traditional cloth used by Bagobo ancestral royalty, in their line-up of fashion and home accessories. Using kinatkat, ine and bandila fibers, the Bagobo women of Davao in Southern Mindanao weave exquisitely-patterned textiles, which will then be sewn together with genuine leather to produce bags, wallets, clutches and holders. Sevilla adds that this product line particularly highlights the artisanal skills of one of their master weavers, Vivencia Mamites, who learned the traditional skill of weaving from Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan awardee Salinta Monon. “We are combining their weaving craftsmanship with our leather craft,” Sevilla explains.
Aside from the Bagobo women, the company works with the women of Sibaltan, a quiet and small coastal town in El Nido, Palawan. They weave leather strips to produce bags, wallets, and other leather goods for the Woven Leather line.
The collections showcase the beauty of traditional weaving skills of indigenous women in cultural communities in the Philippines. However, Sevilla further clarifies, “We are not just talking about carrying our culture. It is more about responsible luxury.” She shares that their enterprise, along with the GREAT Women brand platform, provides sustainable livelihood to disadvantaged women, and also encourages the preservation and continuation of traditional skills and design.
They do not only include the communities of women into their supply and value chain, they also teach them about pricing and increased productivity to enable them to have sustainable income while also promoting their crafts to the global market.
The brand platform was first launched during the APEC Summit in November, and participated in the 63rd edition of Manila FAME to introduce their products to the global market.