Tags: Cottage Industries, Entrepreneurship
By KC Santos
BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS ACCIDENTAL – For Melissa Angelo, being consistently organized need not be difficult. To influence others to develop the same thinking, she designed native bags ideal for compartmentalizing personal items.
Anglo Designs & Accessories is a home-based business that Melissa started 13 years ago in Bacolod. She initially made bags from jute (the same material used for making sako bags) and eventually switched to raffia fabric because the latter is more hypo-allergenic.
The items under the SAKO Utility brand include Pack-it-Cases, Split Bags, Shopping Bags, and Shoe Bags, among many others. Unlike organizer-bags available in the market, Melissa’s design is distinct because she uses twirled raffia fabric for ornamentation.
“Whereas others choose to use it as the material for the bag itself, I decided to use it only as the design. This way the native quality jumps out from the canvas, which may either be abaca or cotton,” she says.
Her designs are inspired by nature and Melissa, a practicing optometrist, says she also her ideas from her ability to see through objects. Her travels also influence her bag designs especially since she doesn’t have a background in the arts or marketing.
“I don’t see trees or plants as they are. I appreciate movement and I try to get a photographic image of that so that even when it’s already translated into a simple item such as an organizer or a bag, the movement of the subject is reflected in the design.”
Her unique designs get the attention of buyers. “I think at first I intend to get their interest with the unusual design and then eventually work my way in explaining to them that being orderly and organized need not be such a chore,” she says.
She sells her bags – priced as low as P85 to P2,000 depending on quality and design – by joining trade fairs.
Apart from the twirled raffia, Melissa also puts her own fashion spin on the patadyong – a native skirt usually checkered in design – by using it also as a patched design on her cotton bags.
Melissa also expanded her products with throw pillows, murals and other made-to- order items.
Since she started 13 years ago, Melissa admits her business has not boomed as she hopes it would be (given that’s it something she does on the side) but quickly adds that she is not giving up on it.
“I’m all for the belief that an organized environment leads to an organized life,” she says.
Get more information about Anglo Designs & Accessories
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