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LINK: BEAUTIFUL LAGA HANDMADE BAGS AND ACCESSORIES
...here is the winning bag! Designed by Liam R. Findlay of Dorset, England... Thank you, Liam, for coming up with a unique and amazing design in keeping with both Laga Handbags and Lady Gaga! We are very proud and look forward to giving this bag also to Lady Gaga herself!
UPDATE UPDATE
An update from a huge Laga Handbags supporter and a fantastic designer Liam R. Findlay, he found a Lady Gaga fan that has an ARTPOP Zone Ticket for the artRAVE in Cleveland OH May 18, 2014. We will send her Liam's designer bag Lady Gaga mady by Laga as shown, she will be giving it to Lady Gaga, let's see what happens!
Laga handmade handbags are made in Aceh, Indonesia by women who survived the tsunami that took the lives of over 250,000.Laga bags, travel bags and accessories are sewn on pedal driven, non-electric treadle machines with hand-guided embroidery patterns that are indigenous to this area and have been passed down through generations. Each handbag is a unique piece of historical art.
Each handbag is lovingly stitched from nylon polyester fabric with cotton embroidery thread and lined with luxurious silk satin lining and has been given and Indonesian name to depict hope in the wake of the devastation: "Damai" (peace), "Sehat" (healthy), "Percaya" (believe)...
Each handbag sewn and sold brings hope for a better tomorrow.
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Laga Handbags was started by Roy van Broekhuizen, whose family fled Indonesia when he was 9 years old, and wife, Louise, also of Indonesian decent.
In Indonesia, Laga Handbags provides a place of peace, refuge and love for victims of disaster who are rebuilding their lives, one handbag at a time.
Roy and Louise do not take a salary from Laga Handbags.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC., is the world’s largest museum and research complex, featuring 19 museums and exhibits ranging from dinosaurs to the world famous Hope Diamond.
ReplyDeleteThe Smithsonian has two museums of Asian art: the Freer Gallery and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which are connected by an underground passageway and feature a world-renowned collection of art from China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia and the Near East.
Laga founders, Roy and Louise van Broekhuizen, said they initially met the Smithsonian buyer at a fashion trade show. Recently, the buyer contacted Van Broekhuizen and ordered three styles of handbags and a wallet for a special show the museum shops will have on Southeast Asian products.
The Laga project began when Roy van Broekhuizen went to Indonesia to direct tsunami relief efforts in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami that took the lives of over 250,000 on the day after Christmas, 2004. The experience transformed him, and wife Louise.
“All they needed was someone to give them a hand,” he recalls.
Louise van Broekhuizen saw street vendors selling beautiful hand embroidered handbags and told Roy she will try to sell those in America. They brought home armfuls of handbags and Louise sold them at a home party, and the project quickly grew into a full time business. The van Broekhuizens are living off investments and putting all profits back into LAGA. In 2009, they sent over $100,000 to Indonesia; rebuilding lives, one handbag at a time.
In April 2010, Laga Handbags were featured on Oprah, and response was awe inspiring. The van Broekhuizens started Laga Handbags with a small team of 12 women and have grown to a team of over 300 women who, in Indonesia, are celebrities in their own right. Through Laga Handbags, they are the hope for a better tomorrow.
With the Smithsonian order almost ready to ship, Laga dreams have grown with their accomplishments.
“I would like to go to Japan and see if there is anything we can do there to mimic what we do with women in Indonesia,” van Broekhuizen added in a phone interview. “I have personal ties,” he said. “My great grandmother was from Okinawa, Japan.”
Laga Handbags and Accessories are sold online for $27 to $439 each, and are also available through independent consultants, online affiliates and at specialty boutiques, museums and gift shops.