Bag With Grey Straps (Planet Friendly)

We create space for differently-abled individuals to undertake creative, dignified work in a nurturing and communal environment. So, while we deliver beautiful, environmentally responsible products, we also deliver an employment solution for differently-abled individuals from under-resourced communities. This is tangible social change.

Our projects marry creative therapeutic methods with skills development while fostering social networks for crucial long-term stability.

I scream & red is a planet friendly bag company that creates bags made from recycled seatbelts, reused car/homestead upholstery and rejected fabric sample books. We also bind all our products with natural or organic cotton and materials to ensure that it is green endorsed.

I scream & red trains and empowers people from previously and currently disadvantaged backgrounds with the skills to create these products and to sustain employment in order to significantly improve their lives.

At i scream & red, we are environmentally friendly and all materials are sourced within the vicinity of production to maximize the usage of minimal carbon emissions on each product whilst also caring socially by activations around people with disabilities and teaching them how to design and start businesses of their own.

I scream & red thrives not on the amount of people we would like to work with, but believes in the organic growth of touching the lives of those around us and focusing on the impact we can have on people at no cost to the earth

I scream & red also offers screen printing done with non-toxic pastes and selections of organic cottons are used for the stitching and lining. We are proud to claim our bags as a 100% locally made product that is environmentally friendly with superb quality.

Our mission statement:

• - to save the earth by creating planet friendly items
• - to cultivate an ecofriendly/conscious society
• - to empower and help people with disabilities and those from rural areas
• - to build consumers’ confidence and unite them by what they wear
• - to create a planet friendly change within the fashion industry

Our purpose:
to save, to cultivate, to empower, to unite, to create

Personal write-up (zaid philander’s story of how it all began):

The below is the story of a boy with much wonder in his eyes and too much touch for fabric.

Zaid was raised in woodstock, a small suburb in cape town where both his parents worked full-time. They were determined to support their five children, which resulted in his mother turning to craft to earn an extra income. With his parents busy at work, he developed a close relationship with his elder sister who learned how to cut, sew and design from books before she moved on to the italian dressmaking school. While other children played ‘blind man’s bluff’, zaid chose to be ‘blinded’ by sewing hems by hand, cutting brown paper patterns and stitching on buttons. This was his sister ‘s attempt at keeping zaid busy by teaching him how to unpick hem lines and doing cuttings (the work that every seamstress dislikes!).

Zaid's attention to sewing encouraged him to pursue purchasing a sewing machine of his own of which was fulfilled two years later on his 10th birthday. After purchasing the machine, zaid's parents had not kept in mind that he would be too short to be able to reach the pedal! Determined to see himself sew, zaid and his sister worked on a contraption to make the machine user friendly by using a hose pipe and a crutch. After a few hours, zaid was sewing his first set of hand puppets with the man-made contraption using his elbow. After learning very quickly how to sew using his elbow, he advanced to making simple garments and projects for neighbours, friends and family.

At age 20, zaid studied environmental awareness with results hitting the high 90 percentages, and due to his nature-loving days as a boy scout he chose to mix his two passions together. He decided to create bags in the most planet friendly way he could think of and started creating an environmentally conscious movement within the fashion industry. Zaid was also nominated and selected as a climate change champion through the british council project, 'low carbon futures'. Inspired by the project and his love that grew for the earth, he decided to start his own bag company after a frustrating and rather plastic shopping venture with a friend. He now not only makes bags, but also teaches people with disabilities to make them and plans on growing this initiative even further.

Ever since a he was a little boy, sewing was neither a talent nor a gift that was given to him by the ‘higher power’, but a responsibility that he decided to undertake; a responsibility that he will use his talents and knowledge for the betterment of the environment, society and the fashion industry.

Zaid: “as such i strive today to inspire, sew and create a planet friendly movement within the fashion industry, one stitch at a time.

As a young boy i was told that sewing is for the opposite sex and that i do not fit the profile. Yet, against all odds (my length, my strength and apparently my gender) i accomplished what i wanted; to sew. Today, i train people with disabilities to sew these planet friendly items as i can relate to how society puts limitations on you. My task is now not only to prove them wrong, but to inspire others to do whatever they believe they want to achieve. For me, the choice began with a needle and thread."