Peace Accessories
- 2009–2010
After starting the brand Braghetterosse in 2008 and before embarking in the Ethiopian projects, I involved my student interns in brainstorming about a peculiar up-cycling design project: what would happen if we collected a bunch of used, damaged or vintage top designer bags and other items, pulled them apart and turned them into new bags using the different logos all together and branded Braghetterosse?
So we did. Logos salad bags or ‘Peace Bags’ we called them because of the play on words.
I purchased online -at high prices- several original vintage bags, all in the logo materials that were characteristic of each brand and totally disassembled them to the last stitch.
The point was to mix up the logo materials so that each bag was composed of different brands. A total provocation! In line with the critical position of Braghetterosse vis-à-vis the monopoly of the super brands.
We called in a lawyer to advise us on the legal risk of this operation and – to create a defense element -we decided to publish the Peace Bags as samples that could be made to order by providing your own vintage bags to deconstruct. Considering the price of the vintage originals, this was the only operation we could envision.
We proceeded to make our sample collection with the valid help of one of the few remaining top-notch leather-goods artisans in Milano – Ambrogio Malinverni. He made the new patterns as per our designs and made up the bags along my guideline. We got our collection photographed it and published it on the website as well as presented the project to the public through a couple of affiliated venues.
The feedback was immediate, we got dozens of calls from vendors wanting to buy ready-made mags as well as articles popping up in magazines about our Peace Accessories, using our images without any permission having been asked.
Pangea ONG supporting Afghan women asked us to build several of our bags for a fund-raising evening. They provided the used branded bags.
Some samples that were displayed in a store were stolen… but the best was yet to come.
Within a few months from the circulation of this ‘disobedient’ design project -that had generated a very special, attractive and surprising aesthetic result- I received by registered mail a pile of legal folders each summoning me to appear in court with the accusation of selling bags made with fake branded products.
Fortunately, I had a super lawyer who was able to prove none of that was true but nonetheless I had to agree to withdraw the images from my website, otherwise THEY would have continued to legally pursue me. I couldn’t afford that, nor would I have wanted to use my energies in that! So, this is what happened and you may see in this the power of force over justice.
