Fil-Am designer turns banig into world-class bags, purses

It takes several villages— or exactly 50 barangays— to manufacture the bags and purses sold under the Banago brand, a line of home and fashion accessories designed by Los Angeles-born Pinoy entrepreneur Renee Patron. “One bag goes through the hands of 10 different people,” Patron told GMA News Online in an e-mail. From dyeing the wild grass and palm leaves, which are woven into the banig (native sleeping mat) from which the bag is created, to weaving, embroidery, and sewing, much of the work for Banago bags is done by homemakers. Serendipitous beginnings Coming home in 2011 to care for her ailing grandmother, Patron recalled, “I kept coming across the beautiful banig mats made from the wild grass in Samar where my family is from.” Having worked with Pret a Porter, the Train, the Livingroom, and Sodes Inc., and being the creative director of SECTA, Patron has developed an eye for spotting something with international appeal. Using banig, she created a few bags and home accessories and showed them to New York retailers. “Turns out they were very interested,” she said. That started Banago, named after the beach in Sulangan town in Samar where Patron’s mother used to play as a child. Within a year, Banago was selling in boutiques in the US, UK, Singapore, Macau, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Guam, Canada, Bahamas, and Australia, and in online shops like Anthropologie, AHAlife, AmourVert, and ShopLatitude. Going back to her roots With the knowledge she gained from working in Paris, New York, and Japan, Patron wanted to build an enterprise in her mother’s hometown that would create jobs. “Growing up watching my mother accept sewing jobs at home while my father worked two different jobs to support us gave me a soft spot for the women who work for Banago,” she said. Today Banago has more than 400 home-based weavers and embroiders. “It’s very heartwarming and inspiring to keep working hard when these women come and say thank you for the work we give them, which helps them put their children to school or buy medicine for sick family members,” Patron said. Banago is also an opportunity to teach locals that quality work has its rewards. “We use a very simple tactic: We simply show them that we will only buy or accept quality work. If you give room and accept poor quality work, they will continue to deliver such,” Patron said. This year, Patron hopes to expand Banago’s reach through a collaboration with Seattle-based company Tommy Bahama, which she describes as “old-school island life meets new-school island life.” The other upcoming collaborations include a show with Echosi Foundation, for which she designed a capsule collection of bags combining Banago’s banig and fabric from Hablon weavers in Miag-ao, and a line of bags with Rags 2 Riches, where she fuses the R2R recycled cotton woven mat with Banago banig. - VVP, GMA News