Plastic waste is one of the most alarming environmental problems we face today, and Paula Votteler decided to do something about it. She’s making some of the most amazing bags that you’ll ever come across, and the most impressive thing about her accessories is that they’re made with plastic and other discarded materials.
Votteler is a German designer, who’s been passionate about fashion from a young age and even attended sewing courses in her youth. She wasn’t brave enough to pursue a degree in fashion design and decided to study packaging technology instead, but she later came up with a creative way to merge two of her biggest passions into one.
Votteler went back to sawing during the pandemic and taught herself weaving and embroidery. These were the building blocks of her brand Atelier Paula Votteler, and she now specializes in making bags, clothing, and other accessories with discarded materials that would’ve ended up in a landfill otherwise.
“I want to make a statement that fast fashion should not be supported and that we treat our planet like dirt. When I hold one of my bags, completely made from existing resources, it gives me a bit of hope that maybe we can still manage to stop the climate and humanitarian catastrophes,” she told The Berliner.
