The Watering Can Bag

Category: Accessories

Pale Garden explores pallor as both an emotional and material point of departure. Ever since I can remember, being told that I looked pale triggered feelings of anxiety. Through this project, I seek to transform what is often perceived as weakness, pallor, fading, and fragility, into a source of beauty, strength, and meaning. The collection approaches the garden as a metaphor for the human soul, a place that constantly moves between blooming and withering, exposure and camouflage, vulnerability and growth. Combining gardeners’ workwear with delicate natural materials, a faded colour palette, and handcrafted techniques including leatherwork, textile development, knitting, and printing, the project offers a new perspective on vulnerability as an inseparable part of the human experience. The bag submitted for this competition emerged from the same conceptual world. It is based on an old, worn watering can that I found, which became one of the central symbols of the collection. For me, the watering can is more than a gardening tool, it represents the quiet, repetitive act of watering, a gesture of care, cultivation, and continuity. Because watering is a small yet essential daily action, it became a metaphor for restoration: not as a single act of repair, but as an ongoing commitment to nurturing growth through periods of exhaustion, uncertainty, and decline. Reimagined at the scale of the original object, the watering can is transformed into a sculptural leather bag while preserving its familiar silhouette. Crafted from natural cow leather, chosen for its durability, character, and ability to retain the tactile presence of the original object, the design embraces rather than conceals its source. By translating an everyday gardening tool into a fashion object, the bag invites a new way of looking at the ordinary. It reflects my interest in transforming familiar objects through craftsmanship, allowing natural materials and thoughtful construction to carry both emotional meaning and functional beauty. For me, the bag embodies the connection between care, materiality, and personal narrative, turning a simple tool into a symbol of cultivation, resilience, and the possibility of continued growth.

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