By Laura Finaldi, News Staff
Alice Saunders was combing through the inventory of an indoor flea market in Lancaster, Mass. when she came across an interesting old army duffel bag. As a history major who always had an affinity for all things military, she was inspired to bring the bag home and re-work it into something entirely different.
After graduating from Northeastern in 2008 with a degree in history, Saunders followed this inspiration and founded Forestbound, a line of one-of-a-kind handbags made out of salvaged army materials, grain and seed sacks, and old Boy Scout backpacks. Forestbound officially started as a business in 2008, and sold its first bag that February.
The line has three different collections featured on its website, Forestbound.com, including one that was designed specifically for clothing store Anthropologie at the shop’s Manhattan, New York and Bethseda, Maryland locations. Saunders said the 75 bags she designed for Anthropologie incorporated a material that is different than ones she uses on a regular basis.
“I found grain sacks from the 1930s and 1940s,” she said. “I tried really hard to seek out grain sacks that were similar to each other for this.”
Saunders, who designs and sews every bag by herself in her Jamaica Plain home, said she gets inspiration for her designs from the different materials she picks up along the way at flea markets, antique stores and estate sales across New England.
“I’ve always gone to a lot of flea markets and I find a lot of old things, specifically textiles, so it made sense [to start a business],” she said. “When I find an old piece of canvas or leather, that’s when I get the idea of what a bag should look like.”
While in college, Saunders said she focused her study of history on World War II, so she likes to incorporate materials from that time period into her designs. About 90 percent of the materials used to make Forestbound products were made between the 1920s and the 1960s, she estimated. Sometimes bags also come from people who are interested in army artifacts.
“I’ve kind of become buddies with a bunch of military collectors,” she said. “When they come across some fabrics, they’ll put them aside for me, which is really awesome.”
Forestbound products are not sold at any retail stores in Boston, but starting March 3 the bags will be sold at Aviary Gallery and Art Boutique in Jamaica Plain. Saunders said prices at Aviary will range from $50 for smaller bags to $200 for a larger tote. Bags are available to purchase on Forestbound’s online shop, with prices ranging from $16 to $300.
Saunders said she is happy she has been able to support herself off of Forestbound post-graduation, and likes having a company small enough for her to do all of the creative work herself. Although she hopes her business continues to grow, she said she would like for it to remain small.
“I really love doing what I’m doing and if I can sustain myself doing this then I will. I still want to keep it relatively strong and manageable,” Saunders said. “I’m just going to kind of see what happens and keep it going as long as I can.”
