EXTRA! EXTRA!

All the news that's fit to print - and fit to hold your wallet.

Alexandra Cassaniti has built a cult following for making cool clothes out of very uncool materials. After a series of neoprene crop tops and bike shorts, the California designer has found inspiration in newspaper print.

Her latest accessories collection takes black and white headlines and turns them into backpacks, tote bags, and travel sacks. Each piece is hand screened in the USA on 100-percent cotton canvas, which makes every bag one-of-a-kind. They’re graphic and cheeky, with headlines like, “It’s a Boom!” and “What’s the Value of a Big Bonus?” pulled straight from pages of established papers like the Los Angeles Times. Though it’s normally the stuff used to wrap martini glasses mid-move and line litter boxes, Cassaniti gives the humble newspaper new life in her designs.

Which doesn’t mean she does it without a wink and a smile; like the rest of her Summer Bummer collection, Cassaniti knows how to have fun (see: the Spike Jonze-directed videos for her previous collection). In this case, she sarcastically proclaims, “Because newspapers are totally out of style!”, all while making the perfect bag to tote around the weekend edition of the New York Times. The question isn’t which section you’ll carry, but rather, which bag you’ll carry it in.
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS

Visit alexandracassaniti.com for more info.



This story was published on August 26, 2009.