Our New Riviera Bags from Catstudio: Feeding Our Obsession

A very special shipment arrived at The Nest Egg yesterday! Now mind you, most of us at the store are slightly obsessed with tote bags of all shapes, colors and sizes, but this shipment of bags was truly special. Aside from the obvious attraction of the classically simple summer stripes of black, red and blue, the wonderful texture of the hand woven materials and the vintage style floral lining, these bags have a special story behind them.

XL Black & White Riviera Bag 23 inches wide 17 inches tall and 5 inches deep

Brought to us by Catstudio, the Riviera tote bags are made possible through a collaboration of Catstudio & a non-profit society in remote Southern India called Sabala, a voluntary organization dedicated to the Empowerment of Women and Children. Set up in 1986, SABALA is working with widows, destitutes, tribals, physically challenged girls and women and economically strained women. To provide sustainable livelihood, Sabala provides these women with skill development and design training, which teaches them to make these beautiful bags.

For the movie buffs out there, even Julia Roberts donned a bag of Sabala in her movie Eat, Pray, Love! (and I'm sure her tote is what attracted Javier Bardem to her . . .)

The bags are all hand woven and made from cotton and jute. Each has beautiful hand stitched edges and shoulder straps. We all know a new tote makes us feel good but these Riviera Tote bags can't help but make you feel really good for supporting such a worthwhile cause! Take a peek at some of the bags we are carrying at The Nest Egg including the XL Black & White bag shown above.

Large Black & White Bag inches wide 11 inches tall and 5 inches deep

XL Red & White Riviera Bag 23 inches wide 17 inches tall and 5 inches deep

Large Red & White Bag inches wide 11 inches tall and 5 inches deep

XL Blue & White Riviera Bag 23 inches wide 17 inches tall and 5 inches deep

Large Blue & White Bag inches wide 11 inches tall and 5 inches deep

This is the lining inside all of our striped bags.


We carry the striped pouches in black, white and blue. 9x4

If you're local, come by and see the bags in person the next time you're our our way! If you're not, we are happy to ship the bag(s) of your choice to you . . . we certainly don't mind sharing our obsessions!