The Bonbon Bag

Designed and made in Haiti by Brussels' Jacmel & Co.

Made out of a fruit, named calabash, those bags are an excellent example of workmanship and artistry, as each bag is one-of-a-kind. The calabash is a member of the gourd family. It is a small evergreen tropical tree with simple leaves and a rough bark. Its fruits are green, with white flesh and smooth skin. The calabash was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, not grown primarily for food, but for use as a water container. According to legend, the bottle gourd was carried from Africa to Asia, Europe and the Americas in the course of human migration. In Haiti, more specifically, the calabash is thought to be a “spiritual fruit” and is often used during voodoo sacred rituals. Jacmel & Co was inspired by an old nomadic tradition and re-imagined a modern use for the calabash gourd: a fashionable organic calabash bag.

The craftsmanship done to grace to the bonbon bag is remarkable. The delicate stripes of leather circling the organic calabash add an extraordinary feel to the avant-garde gourd bag, which emanates sophistication and artistry. This bag was named after the french word “bonbon”, which means “candy.”

  • Materials: Calabash gourd and leather (goatskin) 
  • Size: 15cm- 20 cm height / 10 cm width ; Stripes length: 50cm-60 cm