Ms. Bay

Ms. Bay

Becau­se Ms. Bay is an acces­so­ry brand that makes rock-solid bags, wal­lets and key­chains. Com­ple­te­ly eco & ethi­cal. And Ant­werp. Metro­po­li­tan-cool, down to the smal­lest detail. Of what? Made of fish lea­ther. Excu­se me? Yep. Ms. Bay makes his access­ories out of sal­mon skin.

Who/​what is Ms. Bay?

Ms. Bay was foun­ded by Saskia Aelen and Law­rence Dedr­oog. They had been working in the fashion indus­try for a long time and were – right­ly – con­cer­ned about the unsus­tainable natu­re of fast fashion. In respon­se, they crea­ted a sus­tainable acces­so­ry brand that is eco­lo­gi­cal­ly and ethi­cal­ly responsible.

In their own words;

“We don’t just pro­vi­de the per­fect design, high-qua­li­ty mate­ri­als and impec­ca­ble exe­cu­ti­on. We take care of our com­mon future. Our ideo­lo­gy is one of tim­e­l­ess design, social respon­si­bi­li­ty and envi­ron­men­tal awareness.”

Amen to that. Right?

Eco-logical?

Uhu, ver­ry!

The main raw mate­ri­al of Ms. Bay’s pro­ducts is sal­mon skin. Wait. What?

Yes, sal­mon skin. A was­te pro­duct from the fishing indus­try. Only 1% of all sal­mon skins are recy­cled. So the rest just dis­ap­pears in the trash can.

Not at Ms. Bay. Becau­se they turn that fish skin into super cute access­ories. The fish lea­ther looks like nor­mal lea­ther, but to pro­cess it you need a lot less harmful sub­s­tances. The sal­mon skin Ms. Bay uses comes from the sus­taineb­le Euro­pean sal­mon fishe­ries and is pro­ces­sed in Euro­pe. The lea­ther is tan­ned with 100% vege­ta­ble mate­ri­als (acid from plants, trees and fruit). The result: tim­e­l­ess bags that have litt­le impact on the environment. 

The water used for the tan­ning heats the lea­ther pro­du­cer with geo­ther­mal ener­gy (the heat of the earth). Ms. Bay has the pro­duc­tion done in India, but the way in which the raw mate­ri­als are ship­ped the­re and the way in which finis­hed pro­ducts come back to Euro­pe, the brand is silent about that. Does this hap­pen by pla­ne or by boat? We can only guess.

Litt­le is thrown away at Ms. Bay. Small sur­plu­s­es of lea­ther turn into smal­ler access­ories, such as key rings. And are the pie­ces real­ly too small to use, then the sup­pli­er shreds it and Ms.Bay uses it as a rein­force­ment for the insi­de of the bags.

The lining, pack­a­ging and pre­sen­ta­ti­on work are made from recy­cled mate­ri­als, such as poly-cot­ton and recy­cled cot­ton (whe­re does that come from, Ms. Bay?). And they are reu­sed if pos­si­ble. The brand also uses chro­me-free 100% vege­ta­ble-tan­ned Ita­li­an cow leather. 

The ener­gy the com­pa­ny needs comes from hydro­elec­tric power plants.

Great place to work?

Ms. Bay pro­du­ces its bags in Kolk­a­ta, India. The 3 fac­to­ries the brand works with are SA8000 cer­ti­fied. This means that the hand­bags are made in safe con­di­ti­ons and at a fair wage. Every year, an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­sa­ti­on checks working con­di­ti­ons, envi­ron­men­tal safe­ty and remuneration.

The Indi­an craft­smen Ms. Bay works with are not anony­mous employees, but have their own place on the web­site. Very brief­ly you can read their sto­ry and the con­tri­bu­ti­on Ms. Bay makes to their qua­li­ty of life.

Ms. Bay also takes care of the com­mu­ni­ty of her employees: they dona­te school books or have drin­king water pipes laid to the vil­la­ge. Small sca­le, effec­ti­ve and with gre­at impact on the village.

And does Ms. Bay complete the circle?

Not quite yet, but Ms. Bay uses sal­mon lea­ther – which is a was­te pro­duct of the fishing indus­try. Working with was­te, we like!

Ms. Bay main­ly uses sub­s­tances that are biode­gra­da­ble or reusable. Recy­cled poly-cot­ton (a mix of poly­es­ter and cot­ton) is used as lining mate­ri­al, but the brand stri­ves to switch to a less water-inten­si­ve and more envi­ron­men­tal­ly fri­end­ly fabric such as lyocell.

Short/​overall

Tim­e­l­ess fashion access­ories of sal­mon leather.