Murmali

Handcrafted Cork Handbags

MURMALI IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBLE TOP-END CORK GOODS BRAND.

Murmali combines traditional and classic designs with natural materials and broad color palettes. The brand springs from the intention of creating high-end accessories, ethically handcrafted with cruelty-free, sustainable materials.

Its evocative logo refers to a link, one of the most recognized symbols of our days. This link represents Murmali’s aim of introducing Nature into our lives through products that are made entirely of Natural materials.

Our most important source are the cork-tree forests of the South of Spain and Portugal, from which we take cork, the material that makes all Murmali’s handbags unique. As cork fabric is created from the raw bark of the cork trees, natural patterns are preserved, making each handbag different from one another.

The collections are designed in London and made in a family workshop located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo, Portugal. We benefit from the tremendous eye for detail of our craftsmen, portuguese artisans renowned for the excellence of their high-end cork work.

OUR BAGS REPRESENT SUSTAINABILITY AND LUXURY AT ITS BEST.

QUALITY

The excellency of traditional craftmanship in every detail

ETHICALLY HANDCRAFTED IN PORTUGAL, OUR HANDBAGS COMBINE CRAFTSMANSHIP WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY MATERIALS.

In a small village in the South of Portugal, next to the cork trees forests where we source most of the materials for our fabrics, take place the production of all our collections. In our workshop, all our handbags are fashioned entirely by hand with the utmost finesse. We take pride in the combination of our craftsmanship expertise with the natural environment in which our workshop is located. This results in care of attention to detail, a footprint which is embedded to all our bags.

Involved with our artisans every step of the way

As we visit our factory diligently we have built a personal relationship with our manufacturing partner; they too are a part of the Murmali family. Our involvement in the creation of our accessories ensures their integrity along the process. Every single design is also tested against wear and tear. That is how we ensure our handbags are as functional and resistant as they are unique.

That is why each handbag is a guarantee of quality. Composed of carefully selected natural materials, some bags require nearly four hours of manufacturing and eighty assembly steps.

Slow aware production

Slow fashion is a term that represents a production method which has become fashionable during the past few years. It emphasizes quality over quantity as a way of achieving sustainability in the fashion industry. For Murmali, this has never been something we intended. We did not start our brand aiming for slow production. We wanted to achieve excellence and we discovered this could only be achieved by doing it slowly.

We care about every single accessory we produce, we simply take our time. That’s why all our beautiful bags deserve to be recognized separately and not just as part of a collection. For this reason we give to all of them a different serial number.

Framing Nature

Discover Murmali’s Materials

When creating our designs or manufacturing our handbags, our approach is to develop high-end quality handbags made of natural sustainable materials that do not compromise the environment but protect it. We make this possible by carefully choosing the materials and the partners we are working with. The premise of making our products entirely of natural eco-friendly materials gives our accessories the one thing that makes them unique: They all are Nature themselves.

The reason to use just natural materials is really simple; While there exist in the market lots of vegan options, that does not necessarily mean these options are good for the environment. Different plastics like PVC or fabrics like PU leathers, do not contain any animal-derived material but they are far from being sustainable or good for the environment. Some Vegan materials are cheap to manufacture and expensive to be recycled, which means they often end up harming nature.

The following are the materials Murmali handbags are made of. All of them are sourced seeking for the best quality & sustainability.

CORK FABRIC

Murmali’s Cork fabric is obtained directly from the outer bark of the cork oak, which grows predominantly in the Mediterranean Sea. This remarkable tree has a bark whose properties and regeneration are unique throughout the plant kingdom. Cork oak tree can live about 180 years old, meaning that each tree allows about 17 to 20 cork bark collections. After the harvesting, the tree regenerates, allowing cork to be harvested again after nine years. Bark harvesting has taken place for centuries in the same way, manually, without the need for environmentally damaging mechanization.

The harvesting of cork has guaranteed the survival of the oak tree forests for the past years. This environment is one of the richest biodiversity ecosystems in Europe. It is estimated that cork oak tree forests can absorb the equivalent of 20% of the CO2 emissions emitted by cars in the UK (that is around 14 million tons of CO2 per year)

Cork is a natural material, 100% biodegradable and recyclable. The way cork fabric is processed allows the material to retain all the other qualities that “raw” cork is known for: Water resistant, incredibly lightweight, soft to the touch, stain and abrasion resistant, hypoallergenic.

LINEN & COTTON BLEND LINING

Murmali uses a blend of linen and cotton for all the linings in our handbags. The combination of cotton and linen avoids the disadvantages each of the materials would have separately. The softness and smoothness of cotton balance the roughness of issues of linen. On the other hand, the lightness of the cotton is compensated by the linen’s stiffness.

All the fibers come from plantations in Europe, mainly Turkey and France. The tradition during the manufacturing process, which takes place in Spain, guarantees long lasting fabrics with an excellent touch and a natural finish.

The following are some properties of Murmali’s lining fabric:

As these fabric components are all natural, Murmali’s linings are both environmentally-friendly, fully biodegradable and a guaranteed skin-friendly fabric.

All cotton-linen fabrics are sewn using pure cotton. This makes the fabric difficult to deform.

The cotton-linen blend produces an air-permeable and breathable textile. This means it can quickly absorb the sweat from the skin.

SOLID BRASS HARDWARE

Solid brass is an alloy metal made from copper and zinc. The combination of these two reliable metals contribute to the strength of the final material. Unlike aluminum, zamak or plated steel, solid brass hardware is unsusceptible to corrosion via oxidation. Even brass can tarnish over time, this will only affect its luster but not its performance and durability.

The manufacture of brass across the world depends highly on the recycling of scrap brass and copper. For this reason, brass has become one of the most recycled metals in the world. Furthermore, recycling brass is easier and significantly cheaper than producing new / fresh brass. Statistics show that nearly 90% of all brass alloys are recycled. In addition brass can be recycled many times over without diminishing its properties and quality.

HIGH QUALITY THREAD

A perfect flat seam has always been one of the most important factors when considering the final look of a luxury handbag. While there are many aspects that must come together to obtain a perfect seam, the expertise of the seamstress and the quality of the thread used prevail.

All our seams are made using the same thread some of the major leather goods companies have been using for decades, Mara 30 thread. The quality of this thread combined with the expertise of our workshop allows us to produce one of the most eco-friendly, high-quality handbags available today.

CORK EDGE PAINT

To Murmali, the process of painting the edges of our beautiful bags is a critical step. The respect we have for our accessories and the natural materials we use to manufacture them make us take our time through the manufacturing process. The expertise of our artisans applying the paint on the edges guarantees all our handbags age maintaining their original properties and appearance.

All the edges of our handbags are sealed using one of the most quality seal paints available, Giardini edge paint. The quality of the product, combined with the way we apply it, always manually, ensure all our handbags are unique and fully handcrafted, from start to finish.

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