Handbag designer Helen Hoppock of Helena de Natalio was so inspired by her time in the Peace Corps in Natalio, Paraguay that she named her company after it.
While living in Natalio, Helen befriended the town seamstress and would work into the night experimenting with textiles, putting notches on her lipstick case towards being the great designer and one might even say humanitarian she is today.
With 5% from all her sales going towards Ashoka, a non-profit organization dedicated to social entrepreneurship, Helen also works as a mentor with the Mapuche Indians in Southern Argentina helping them market their work to English speaking countries, personally oversees the production of her line and guarantees that each bag is made from an artisan being paid a fair wage and working in a healthy environment. You can really appreciate her overriding principle: that a high end accessory line can be made sustainably and fairly.
A busy woman, she still took the time to answer a few questions for us:
Being a Peace Corps member, did you work by day and play with textiles by night?
Not exactly. As a Peace Corps volunteer you often have to go to the capital city or local cities for meetings and to get supplies for your projects. I would take advantage of my time in the big cities to search for textiles.
What was it like working with materials you’d never handled before?
It was fun to learn about textiles, hardware and leather in Argentina. It was uncharted territory for me so I really enjoyed the challenge of learning about materials and an industry I’d never studied before.
How do you feel your label evokes your Paraguayan experience?
My label evokes my time in Paraguay because the name of the line, Helena de Natalio, was actually my nickname in the Peace Corps. Natalio is the name of the town I lived in Paraguay. I used to go by Helena (pronounced Elena) but there are a lot of women named Elena so my friends from other towns started calling me Helena de Natalio and it stuck. When it came time to name my handbag line it was too appropriate to pass up.
Benefiting local artisans is giving back, in a way, to what they gave you?
I would agree that benefiting local artisans is a way to give back what they gave to me. I also feel strongly about working with production facilities that operate legally in South America. It is difficult to find them but I have found those places that pay fair wages, and provide benefits and healthy working conditions to the artisans who make our bags.
Are you still friendly with the seamstress you befriended in Natalio?
Unfortunately, we have lost touch, but I haven’t lost tabs on her. She does not use the internet so that inhibits our communication but I still email with other friends from my site and they tell me what she is up to.
Any gem of advice she gave you that helps you to this day as a designer?
She started with nothing but “sweat equity”, and when I get discouraged I try to remind myself of her persistence and success, and that always keeps me motivated.