flashbags

Published 06.14.06 Burlington, VT

Ali Marchildon and Laura Cheney have found an artful way to stop strangers on the street, and it doesn't involve carrying a cute puppy. Rather, those gushing sounds are reactions to Flashbags -- the attention-grabbing totes the women have been making since last fall in the dining room of Marchildon's Burlington home.

The bags are sturdy rectangles with loop handles made of clear tubing, and they come in varied sizes to hold everything from makeup to wine bottles to . . . just stuff. But Flashbags' appeal is not about practicality; it's about art. Outside and in, they're covered with color-copied, plastic-laminated original artworks -- photographs, paintings, or collages of pop-culture images and text.

That's what distinguishes them from a bazillion similar totes; it's what causes strangers to exclaim, "Ooh, where did you get that bag?" And then there's the funky stitching, in unique patterns around the edges and sometimes swirling across the sides. "The stitching helps make them pieces of art," declares Marchildon, who notes that no two bags are identical. Wherever Flashbags are seen, she marvels, "people are wild about them. " No wonder the nascent brand's tagline is "Carry a conversation."

http://www.flashbagsonline.com/buzz/?pn=Seven_Days_Article