The most feminine bagin the world.
Handwoven mochilas from the indigenous women of Colombia — the Wayuu, the Arhuaco, the Kankuamo. Every piece curated by Michelle, and carried home in her suitcase from Bogotá to Amsterdam.
- One of a kind
- Fairly traded
- Free NL shipping over €120
a curated selection
Every mochila, handpicked.
Each mochila is a handwoven prayer woven by Colombian female hands, with a technique passed on from generation to generation, with local natural materials. A bag with a story, made to last a lifetime.
la matriz
The most feminine bag
in the world.
The mochila is shaped like a womb; round, soft, generative. For the Wayuu it is exactly that: a vessel that holds, protects, and gives life to what you carry. A quiet answer to fast fashion: one woman, one bag, weeks of breath. Nothing about it is mass.
Symbol
She is the womb
Made by women
Hers, from first knot to last.
SLOW FASHION
Natural fibre, deep story.
carried
Worn her way.
Over the shoulder, cross-body, three at a time on the way home from the market. Flexible, strong, soft, a mochila lives with you the rest of your life.
in her hands
cross-bodya compañera
wherever the day goes.
las mochilas
Mochilas, handwoven prayers.
One-of-a-kind bags woven by Wayuu, Arhuaco and Kankuamo women. Each takes weeks to make, each carries a story you can wear. The patterns represent spiritual meaning. Honoring the abundance of the mountains, or the water in the rivers. All in true connection with Mother Earth.
memoriaThe hands behind
A mochila takes twenty days to weave, and a lifetime to learn.
In La Guajira, where the desert kisses the Caribbean Sea, generations of Wayuu women pass down patterns the way other cultures pass down songs. Each design is a kaa'ulayawa, a story, a prayer, a name. When you carry this bag, you carry the special meaning of a story that goes back a lifetime.
Read their stories →
la tierra
We do not make bags.
We carry stories.
In the language of the Kogi people, Aluna means the unseen world, the dimension where every thing exists as thought before it becomes form. Our pieces are born there first: in the silence of a woman's hands, in the rhythm of her weave, in the colors of her land.
"I met my husband on a plane to Colombia. Three weeks later, I was in love with a country, and with a bag I saw everywhere. It took years to find my first mochila. Aluna is how I bring that search to the world."
— Michelle, the founder
how to wear
Cross-body, or over the shoulder.
A mochila is meant to move with you. Sling it across the chest for long days, or let it rest at the shoulder — the loomed strap softens into the shape of you.
las pulseras
Complement your conscious outfit with a meaningful bracelet.
Werregue palm bracelets, handwoven in the Chocó rainforest and bathed in 24k gold. Six sacred motifs — protection, abundance, love, journey, blessing, return.
alunathe elder brothers
For the Arhuaco, Aluna is the great mother.
High in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta live the Arhuaco, one of four indigenous peoples who call themselves the Elder Brothers of humanity. In their cosmology, Aluna is the great mother: the invisible thought that gives birth to every river, every mountain, every child. To weave is to remember her.
The Arhuaco are clear: the nature is sick. The rivers are drying, the ice on the peaks is retreating, the forests are quieter than they were. Their mochilas are a message from the mountain to the world, carry us gently, and remember where you come from.
"We do not make bags. We weave what our mother the earth is telling us."Read: the Arhuaco and their mochila →
curated
handpicked in Colombia
Every piece, carried home by Michelle.
Aluna is not a warehouse. It's a small, personal selection. Michelle travels to Colombia, sits with the cooperatives, chooses each mochila and each bracelet by hand — and carries them home in her suitcase from Bogotá to Amsterdam. What you see here is what she chose for you.
Read Michelle's story →michellehola
questions? talk to Michelle
Not sure which mochila is yours?
Michelle will help you choose.
Send Michelle a message and she'll walk you through the available pieces personally — videos of each bag in daylight, close-ups of the weave, even a live stream with the mochilas laid out in front of her. Every bag has its own personality; finding yours is a small conversation.