There was a moment a couple years back when Tyvek was the hot material du jour for avant garde new designers, used to create everything from dresses to scarves. And there’s good reason for it — the material is incredibly strong, durable, easy to work with and most importantly dirt cheap. You might recognize Tyvek as that plastic-like cotton fabric FedEx envelopes are made of. Well for some reason that trend cooled off in the interim. This collaborative project between Saskia and Stefan Diez, the “Papier” series of bags, is an experiment in revising the classical typology: the two designers have pointed out the basic requirements to a travel bag – durability, protection and light weight – and sought for an appropriate material other than the traditional choices of leather and reinforced textiles. Hence, they decided upon making the “Papier” bags out of Tyvek, which is extremely lightweight – 135g for the bigger and 115g for the smaller bag – but at the same time exceptionally robust, both water- and tear-proof. The material is completely recyclable. Apart from that, one will appreciate the high-end finishes applied to such seemingly banal material as paper. Silkscreen printing techniques gives it a particularly attractive look. “Papier” won the German Designpreis 2010.