Sustainable Baddie of the Week: Chila Bags & the Wayúu Women
This interview was conducted in Spanish and translated for your reading pleasure <3
Many of us take a post-college crisis trip in the hopes that our life's purpose might be hidden at the bottom of our salt-rimmed margarita glasses, or that a chance encounter with a foreign royal leads us to a life of Mia Thermopolis-ing. Mostly, we return home a bit hungover and as lost as ever. However, Laura Chica found herself in the 1% of truly life-changing trips. In 2013, she took a trip to the Guajira region of Colombia, having no idea that it would change the course of her life. As she explored the desert landscape, she was struck by the vibrant and colorful mochilas Wayúu (Wayúu bags) worn by the women living there. She immediately knew that she wanted to share these beautiful Colombian bags with the world.
Later that year, she founded Chila Bags, a Colombia-based brand that specializes in artisanal mochilas, a traditional woven bucket bag from the Guajira region.
“I hadn’t been to La Guajira and never used mochilas much… We went to La Guajira and went up to el Cabo de la Vela. In el Cabo de la Vela I started to see these spectacular mochilas, these colors, and in La Guajira, they look even more divine because it’s the desert and all the colors are earth tones and arid, and these women with these super colorful bags I said, ‘Wow!’ They are so beautiful! I love them!’ And after that trip, I said, ‘What I want to sell are these mochilas.’”
After returning from her trip, Chica set out to share these bags with the world. She started by creating a Shopify storefront and posting the mochilas Wayúu online. From there, the company began to grow rapidly. Today, Chila Bags ships to all parts of the world, with their biggest markets being Asia and the United States.
The mochila Wayúu is the most well-known traditional craft of The Wayúu people, an Indigenous community located in the Guajira Peninsula in Northern Colombia and Venezuela. The Wayúu language is part of the Arawak linguistic family, and it is called Wayúunaiki. Today there are around 110,000 – 140,000 Wayúu people living in Colombia.
Wayúu textile tradition tells a story that has been passed down for centuries, enduring through colonization and modernization. To the Wayúu women, weaving is a symbol of matriarchal wisdom. According to legend, a female spider named Walekerü approached a Wayúu woman to impart to her the skill of weaving webs. The spider spent almost a year teaching the Wayúu woman how to weave so that she could weave all of the beauty she saw in the desert.
For a woman from the Wayúu tribe, learning to weave is a rite of passage that occurs after their first menstruation. In that moment, the girl must spend a period of encierro, or confinement, learning the wisdom of the Wayúu from her grandmother or her female relatives, including the art of weaving.
“We really want to conserve the mystique, the values, and the ancestral knowledge behind this artisanal practice. We also understand that in order to have an international market, we need to design with certain color combinations…which occasionally the artisans will not be familiar with because they, being from the Wayúu tribe, live in their rancherias, and often don’t have access to the internet and aren’t as connected with international fashion,” Chica says.
“So our task, in reality, is to be able to interpret or maintain the beauty of the artistry, but give it our touch to be able to make it internationally appreciated.”
The women of the Wayúu tribe have been hand-weaving mochilas Wayúu for generations. It takes them 10-15 days to complete each bag. Each bag is unique, has intricate tribal designs and colors, and tells a story of deep ancestral tradition. Many of the designs that are woven into each bag represent the natural elements that surround the Wayúu and what their culture revolves around, such as animals, the sun, plants, and stars.
Chila Bags prides itself on being a sustainable and socially responsible business.
The company works closely with the Wayúu women who hand-make each bag, ensures the artisans are fairly paid and work in good conditions, and cuts out the middle-men who often underpay them and devalue their artistry.
The relationship Wayúu women have with Chila Bags helps them sustain their villages’ economies by hand-making these pieces and selling them. Early on in Chila Bags’ journey, they had discovered how poorly the artisans and their creations were treated by resellers of Wayúu mochilas.
In the early searches for product sourcing, Chica traveled to Riohacha, Colombia to find somewhere she could purchase mochilas Wayúu. “I arrived at the mercado viejo, which is a place full of resellers who were selling low-quality bags. As I continued buying these bags I took a step back and said, ‘Wait a minute, who am I buying these bags from?’ I would like to make these designs of higher quality.’ And when we said this to the resellers they would say, ‘Nope, that’s what there is.’” Chica tells us,
“So we started to rewind, look into the process, and find out why the resellers didn’t have the type of relationship with the artisans where they could ask for a higher quality product.”
The middle-man often does not pay the artisans enough to even cover the cost of materials it takes to make the bag itself. Out of sheer desperation, the Wayúu women will sell it for well below what it’s worth.
Chica decided to look for a single opening with an artisan; once she could convince them to sell to her instead of to the middle-men, she began the process of creating a fair payment structure and creatively collaborating with the artisans to make a high-quality product.
Chila Bags’ goal is to consciously share their Colombian heritage and culture with the world. People across the globe (including Miss Sienna Miller, post-breakup!) have been able to sport the mochila Wayúu and to see that this Colombian traditional art form is truly something remarkable.
The company has a design team that works to create three collections a year. These collections are not only a reflection of current fashion trends, but also incorporate traditional Colombian elements. The intentional design process ensures that it is feasible for artisan women to weave the patterns by hand. The team also works to reimagine existing designs and keep the most popular designs as part of a permanent collection. The process of creating a new design starts with a sketch and a meeting with lead artisans from the rancherias communities. The artisans are invited to Medellin, where the team spends a full day going over the ideas and sketches and works with them to create a design that can be hand-woven. “This process has been an amazing experience for the artisans, as it pushes them to think creatively,” Chica tells. The artisans have been able to take these ideas and pass them onto the other members of their team. Because production capacity is small, Chila Bags orders in small batches to guarantee the highest quality. This also allows the team to get to know the artisans, learn how they work, and foster a relationship with them.
Chila Bags is not just a company or a brand– it's a story of a chance encounter that turned into a passion, and a mission to share that passion with the world. From a soul-searching trip to the Guajira desert to a thriving global business, Chila Bags is a glimmering example of how cultural heritage and sustainability can come together to create something beautiful. Sometimes, the things we fall in love with on a trip can change our lives forever.