We are pleased to announce the winners of our “What does MATT & NAT mean to you” contest. We had some great letters; however there were two in particular that stood out as they were beautifully written not only technically but also on a personal level.

The letters we found most effective were written by Ms. A.Dillon and M. D.Rader and are posted below for you all to read.

You may be wondering why you don’t recognize or cannot find the bags in the images above…not only are these bags are what will be received by these two winners but both styles are from our not-yet-launched Fall 09 SUEDE & FEUTRE collections which are made entirely from recycled plastic water bottles. That’s right; these two winners are getting a sneak preview of our new collections!

We truly appreciate everyone’s participation in this contest as well as the time and thought that was put into each and every letter, thank you all very much!

Be sure to stay tuned for these collections in the coming month as well as future contests, news and updates; 2010 has a lot in store!

Ms. A. Dillon

Matt & Nat is the young girl freshly arrived at university, in a city where the effortless chic of distressed denim and looped scarves made the women click-clacking their way home from the dépanneur seemed ready for the runways she had seen only on television.  It is that vibrant red bag in the boutique window on rue St-Laurent, all contrast stitching and chunky buckles, eyed during all those Saturday afternoons of make-believe shopping for the life she wanted to lead. Once she knew the philosophy behind that red bag finally hanging proudly on her shoulder, she felt a little more at home in that city, her fierce childhood love for backyard critters and zoo creatures suddenly au courant. Matt & Nat is the same girl years later, now employed in a different city, catching her reflection in the Queen Street store window. Stopping to fix her hair, she spots the familiar branded display of rich charcoal totes, all long zippers and antiqued hardware.  In a split second, she was there and back again, from small town to big city, from shy girl to assured young woman, and suddenly she found herself in a rush for the streetcar, with that new tote wrapped up under her arm. To me, Matt & Nat was me then at 18, and it’s me now at 28. It’s the stylish new in the old, the recycled old in the new. Matt & Nat is change without changing what really matters. It’s evolution.

M. D. Rader

What Matt and Nat means to me is the realization of the dream of style finally catching up to substance. I have been vegan for more than twenty years. I spent the first five or six years, clinging to leather shoes and belts, wearing them out, re-soling shoes, giving away my suede jacket and leather briefcase. I stretched out the lifespan of anything leather that I retained both because the marketplace offered so few reasonable options and out of respect for the life that had been taken to make that leather product.

About fifteen years ago, I finally did a complete purge. I took shopping trips to New York to specific stores that I had found carried non-leather goods – particularly shoes and belts. With the more recent growth of options and Internet storefronts in the past ten years, I have still had to scour the marketplace to find those small pockets of cool designers who made products that sacrificed neither style nor our four-legged friends. But finding the right bag has always been a challenge – some things that looked great would tear in a matter of weeks or days. I needed something sturdy enough for travel and formal enough for work.

Matt and Nat is the brand I have been waiting for - that one giant leap forward in style, performance and soul. Matt and Nat meets my travel and work needs and my personal commitment to be too cool for cruel.

Thanks for stepping up.

Tags: contests, free MATT & NAT bags, Inder Bedi, Inder Bedi annouces winners, Inder Bedi announces Anti-fur campaign winners, MATT & NAT, Recycled plastic water bottles, WHAT DOES MATT & NAT MEAN TO YOU

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Events, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.