QWSTION: the Swiss brand weaving bags out of plants
Founded in Zurich in 2008, QWSTION replaces plastic with plant-based fibres and invented Bananatex®, a fabric made from the banana plant.
A bag, a fabric, a question. That’s more or less all you need to sum up QWSTION, the Swiss brand founded in 2008. Its name sounds like an ongoing question, and that’s no accident: QWSTION says it sets out to question conventional ways of designing, making and using everyday objects. From Zurich, home to its flagship shop on Limmatstrasse, the brand has quietly built a reputation around one simple move: taking plastic out of the equation and replacing it with plant-based materials.
A question raised in 2008
It all starts with an observation shared by plenty of bag makers, even if few actually act on it: most technical textiles rely on petroleum derivatives. QWSTION chose a different path from its founding in 2008. Rather than tweaking existing materials a little further, the brand decided to start again from the raw material itself, and to look for it in the plant kingdom. That founding decision would shape everything that followed, right up to the development of a fabric that now carries the brand’s signature.
Bags built to last
The QWSTION range is built around everyday bags and accessories: these carry the brand’s message, season after season. The pieces are designed for regular use, whether around town or on the move, with as much attention paid to material as to shape. The brand has recently widened its territory: the launch of the All Weather Coat marks its first product outside bags, developed with the D.N.S. studio using a fabric called CottonShell®. A sign that a brand born around a bag can, with the same convictions, dress the body too. The accessories haven’t been left out either: a keyring, the Bananatex Keychain Large, brings the signature material into a tiny object — almost a pocket-sized manifesto.
The fabric that bears its name
The heart of QWSTION’s know-how comes down to one word: Bananatex®. This fabric, developed in-house, is made from the banana plant, allowing the brand to move away from the synthetic fibres usually used in technical bags. Since 2018, QWSTION has applied Cradle to Cradle circular design principles across its range — an approach that considers a product from the design stage so that, in theory, it can return without harm to a natural or industrial cycle. In practical terms, for anyone carrying a QWSTION bag, this means a plant-based material rather than plastic, and a design process that doesn’t stop at the finished object but considers what happens to it afterwards. Manufacturing takes place at BSCI-certified sites in Asia and the European Union — a certification covering working conditions at partner factories. The brand itself holds B Corp certification, a label that assesses the company as a whole, beyond the product alone.
A vision that goes beyond the bag
QWSTION doesn’t just sell objects: the brand says it’s aiming for a regenerative vision, one in which waste and pollution would be eliminated through a closed-loop supply chain. It’s a long-term ambition that reaches well beyond a catalogue of bags. More striking still, QWSTION says it makes its Bananatex® fabric openly available to any company wishing to replace plastic with plants too. In other words, the brand isn’t looking to keep its invention to itself: it shares it, as though the question posed by its name called for a collective answer rather than a simple competitive edge.
What’s new at QWSTION
The brand’s recent activity shows a clear intent to move beyond bags alone. In 2026, the All Weather Coat, made with the D.N.S. studio from CottonShell®, opens a new chapter in clothing. On the bag side, the Weekender gets a new colourway, Organic Jet Black, proof that the long-standing models keep evolving rather than simply being reissued. The brand has also collaborated with AKLA on a series of plastic-free caps, handmade in Zurich — a one-of-a-kind piece in the catalogue that’s a reminder the Zurich workshop stays active even on small runs. Finally, the Bananatex Keychain Large, released the same year, extends the brand’s logic to even the smallest of objects, also made in Zurich.
What to know in Switzerland
QWSTION is a Swiss brand, born and still rooted in Zurich, home to its flagship shop on Limmatstrasse. It’s there that the brand displays its full range — bags, accessories and now clothing — and where certain pieces are made, such as the AKLA cap series or the Bananatex keyring.
Why we like it
We like the idea itself: simple and stubborn — replacing plastic with plants, right down to a bag's lining. We also like that the brand opens up its Bananatex® fabric to other companies rather than keeping it to itself.
Exactly the kind of brand we’d love to come across on O!deal one day.
QWSTION products we’ve spotted
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QWSTION's All Weather Coat: organic cotton built for daily Swiss weather
A Japanese-woven, PFC-free cotton coat from QWSTION, made in Poland and designed to move between office and street without relying on synthetic shells.
- O!radarQWSTION
QWSTION Weekender: the Swiss weekend bag built on cotton
Designed in Switzerland, the QWSTION Weekender relies on certified cotton canvas and a convertible carrying system. A bag for two-day trips, laptop included, that turns into a backpack when you need your hands free.
