Gwen Cornish’s Bywa Bag Designs

Bywa bag designs were created by Vancouver bag designer Gwen Cornish in January 2010.

“The Bywa brand was created to bring beauty and usefulness to the things that others discard,” she says. “Our brand is all about the creative process of repurposing, but we believe that doing that can add new beauty and individuality to our style and life.”

Every bag is inspired by a different source. For example, the Anne is inspired by Anne of Green Gables’ large carpet bag, just as the Jules was inspired by her dear friend Julie who loves traveling and who asked her to design a bag for her world travels.

Her bags entail, “a variety of different bag styles and wallets that are uniquely designed, meticulously made, and highly functional for every day needs.”

Bywa bags are made of reclaimed leather from skirts, pants and old jackets with lining from reclaimed fabrics. But she also loves to repurpose plastic bags which turn into hard vinyl and used as a stabilizer for wallets and her bags.

Vancouver bag designer Gwen Cornish’s vision for her brand was to find and use new materials usually thrown out to create with. “There is so much waste and over consumption that leads to our landfills overflowing,” she says. “One of the statistics that inspired this brand was from ‘the story of stuff’, 99% of things purchased today will be in a landfill in six months.”

The vision was to be part of the shift in how we view stuff. “Most things remain useful but it may take a bit of creativity to see them used with a different purpose in mind,” she says. “With a little patience, determination and creativity we can find uses for most things we tend to get rid of by re-envisioning their purpose.”

Bywa also wants to be a brand that helps women worldwide. They believe empowering women helps to bring justice to our world. One project of notable interest she’s involved in is the documentary project which features stories of women in the Middle East called Jordan: bringing the stories home.

Vancouver bag designer Gwen Cornish sells her line at www.cargoh.com and at various shops in Vancouver including Dream Apparel, Wren Boutique and the Velvet Room but also participates in many artisan markets such as “Make It” and the “Harmony Arts festival”.

For more information on Bywa visit: www.bywabagdesigns.com