Bonastre Designer Bags
Paris 2011, "Rue Réaumur", on a 4th-floor apartment, a man is sitting in front of his computer, searching for the perfect portfolio for his laptop. After checking department stores, designers and a couple of brands and boutiques, he is determined to find what he has been looking for, even if it has to be through the Internet. A couple of sites have gone by, but no luck yet...
Pretty, but small; functional, but not durable... No design seems to catch his attention. While he wonders if it is this hard for everyone, or if he is just being too "selective" because he is also a designer, he starts to think once again, where could he find something similar to what he is looking for. A good design, but without having to sacrifice quality and functionality. He keeps on thinking, but nothing comes to mind and there are no other options he can think of.
Being a visual person, he decides to illustrate his idea to help free his mind, he reaches for a piece of paper and a pen and starts to roughly sketch "the perfect bag". Simple, minimalistic, functional, sturdy, spacious and overall, timeless. Something that he would be able to use in many situations for a long time, an item to carry all the things he needs on the day-to-day, the bits, and pieces of his daily life. Something that would feel like himself and represent a part of his individuality, and not just another mass production item. He lifts the sketch, tilting it towards the light and sets his pen on the table, to have a better look at it. "This is it" - thinks to himself, "this is exactly what I would need to find", he proceeds to lay down the drawing, to search for a bit more, but finds himself looking back at the piece of paper across the table.
Nothing feels just as perfect as the one he created. He starts to wonder how many people would share his same opinion and might be searching without luck for something just like that, an item full of character, quality and with a fresh design. That was the story of how BONASTRE was created. A brand product of an idea made into reality, by a brave designer that decided not to play safe and take risks to take his ideas out of the box of maybes and into the one of creation.
The designer behind Bonastre designer Bags
The creator and founder of BONASTRE, Fernando Bonastre de Celis, is a designer natural from Spain but based in Paris. A couturier who acquired experience for years working under many renowned brands. An innate designer that even when creating for bigger brands, never forgot his dream to create for himself.
BONASTRE is a brand, a result of the search for simplicity and aestheticism. A brand aiming to provide minimalistic pieces that catch attention through the usage of volume and shaping, this brand aspires to be something more than just a pretty face.
With his creations, BONASTRE does not only dominate aesthetics but also quality without losing sight of one of his main goals, functionality. A rare quality nowadays, many times completely forgotten or overshadowed by design. BONASTRE focuses on mastering space, as a brand that not only considers capacity "a luxury of the modern world" but that also recognizes bags as "a nomadic space to hold our privacy". For Fernando, architectural movements such as "Brutalism", bring big doses of inspiration, which together with minimalism and the creation of "forms that follow function" are the key to his designs.
Materials and Production
Another reason that makes BONASTRE´s bags so special, lies in the materials and production. The bags are designed to be unique and made completely from scratch one at the time. Every bag is made by a single craftsman only. A professional artisan that dedicates around 20 hours per bag, before there are thoroughly checked and ready to face another solidity test to prove the bag´s ability to handle, without trouble, whatever you might throw at them.
The pieces are made in Andalusia, a region located in the south of Spain that has kept the tradition of making leather goods since it was once started around the Middle Ages. A tradition so engraved in the culture and the know-how of their professional saddlers, that has granted them a well-deserved reputation concerning their techniques and quality of their work. Even with all the technology available today, most of the craftsman uses the ancient methods that were developed once upon a time, making the location one of the lasts European scenarios, for the production of Luxury leather goods.
BONASTRE´s workshop is located just there, in the middle of where it all started, a location once very carefully examined and selected by the designer itself, before ever deciding to make the first sketch come to life. The workshop was decided upon due to the tools and know-how have been carefully passed down through generations until this same day, allowing the relations among brand, designer, and workshop to be intimate and based on the same desires, the one of creating the best and most beautiful creations, out of high-quality materials.
Fashionable, but also Environmentally Conscious
The brand wants to be as responsible as possible with the environment, for which it uses vegetable-tanned leather, developed with chestnut and oak tannins and olive oil finishing, as well as linings, carefully selected from recycled cotton. These materials are chosen by the designer, to back up an ethical approach with his brand and creations.
Besides the recycled cotton; only vegetable-tanning leather is used, which has been pointed out as an alternative material in fashion that will be able to reduce consumption over time, due to its high quality that allows buyers to use the same items for very long periods of time. Vegetable tanning is a type of leather coming from a sub-product of the food industry that stays away from harmful chemicals while substituting them for acids found in nature. Even though it is one of the most natural and environmentally friendly ways to work on leather, it is not often the one chosen by brands, due to longer production times, higher production costs and the necessity of it being worked on by an experienced and scarce number of specialist. Reducing the earning ratio for companies, but brings a whole lot of advantages for the consumer and the environment, due to the durability and strength of the materials, it not being harmful to the consumers health and also being far more efficient than most synthetic materials.
Eco-friendly materials and functionality are not the only things to take out from this brand, the design also play a big part. Constantly innovating with new techniques to upgrade its game of creation. An honorable mention has to go to one of the latest additions to the brand, the addition of "scarifications" to its designs. An unprecedented technique in the field that uses handwork inspired on these rituals from certain tribes around the world. Scarifications which hold origin into the creation of artistic motifs onto the skin through superficial incisions to mark the passage to adulthood is incorporated into the brand with leather handwork in 2D. Work that gives each bag a colorful and unique aesthetic, able to top any look.
The brand was created in 2011, but it has come a long way until now. One of its big milestones was the opening of its store right at the heart of Paris. At “le Marais" one of Paris's most popular districts in terms of fashion. The store located in rue du Perche number 10, colliding with rue de Saintonge, matches minimalist aesthetics, with the bags filling its shelves and receives the visit of an outstanding number of tourists and locals that go through its items daily to select "the one".
The store is not the only way to acquire any of these exquisite bags, the brand also visits most of the best fashion fairs around the world and is available at illustrious locations around the globe such as Bon Marché & Le Printemps in Paris, Barneys in NY, Kadewe in Germany, Luisa Via Roma in Italy, Wako & United Arrows in Japan, Galeries LafayeGes in Indonesia and even here in Korea you can find its delicious items at places like Shinsegae or Hyundai department stores. The number of customers and locations keeps increasing every year, but probably the biggest milestone was reached this 2018, when the online store was launched, allowing anyone anywhere to get their hands on their dream bags.
This beautiful brand has been conquering Europe and different locations over time, working just like its creator under a big duality. Run by two places, Spanish origin, and French location. A Spanish heart building the foundation and French development and evolution, both designer and brand will bring you right to the streets of Paris, with their Parisian effortless look, yet carrying the wisdom, knowledge, and nostalgia of the old ages, filled with full Spanish passion.
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