FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Texas, February 27, 2023— I am a child of the nineties. Of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World” on repeat when I was an elementary school kid, of being excited about the Climate Summit and militant to (back then) reduce the ozone layer. I grew up learning about recycling, reusing, reducing, and then learning about the upcycle movement as a result.
And it’s not as if upcycling as a concept was new. What is new to me, at least, and what is innovating in this Latino owned brand of incredible handbags, is that I would never in a million years have guessed this gorgeous bag is made of recycled plastic bottles.
Yes, designer wear. Out of plastic bottles. That is not only wearable, but extremely functional and stylish as well.
Carolina Sandoval comments for our piece that Maria Victoria’s handbag collection made by Mexican entrepreneur mothers is mainly made of PVC plastic. PVC stands for “polyvinyl chloride” and is the world’s third most widely produced plastic polymer. Worldwide, we produce about 40 million tons of it each year. The flexible PVC, which is used to make plastic water bottles, is the main source material for the gorgeous handbag collections we have seen from My Maria Victoria for the last six years. The PVC plastic is first melted to form “ropes” of plastic that is then injected with incredible vibrant hues. The ropes are then woven together- think of plastic lacing those four-laced keychains when we were nineties kids, but to make handbags instead of keychains. The plastic weaving takes traditional techniques originally used for thread to make the stunning designs that decorate our shoulders.
Plastic weaving has its own intricacies that leather, thread, or fabric do not lend themselves well to, and provide a myriad of new considerations to both the creator and the consumer. For example: a binary print in a checkered design will not yield the same result if it is “black and white” as opposed to “white and black”: the starting weave will be on the outermost curves of the design and the second color will be underneath. Therefore, it is extremely important to pay attention to the color orders in your wish list- both designs may be beautiful, but there is always one that is closest to your heart. I had this phenomenon happen very recently with my most recent Maria Victoria acquisition: the Ana Crossbody bag from their 2022 collection, which is available in white and gold, and gold and white, amongst other options. If you look at the images available for these designs, you can see that, while similar, the color distribution is inversed when you choose one color as the starter color over the other. I was amazed at how the order of the coloring would yield such a difference in design, and my understanding of these weave patterns grows bigger the more I understand I need to learn!
Media Contact:
Name: Ana Carolina Sandoval
Organization: Maria Victoria
Phone: 8324330248
