QWSTION

Bananatex, fabric from banana fibers grown without pesticides. Clean Swiss design. Concept stores in Zurich and Vienna. Proving sustainability and elegance are the same thing.

In 2008 Zurich, five friends shared the same frustration: sustainable bags looked like hiking gear, while stylish bags fell apart within six months. Matthias Graf, Sebastian Kruit, Christian Kaegi, Fabrice Aeberhard, and Hannes Schoenegger decided to bridge this gap. QWSTION was born from a simple question that gave the brand its name: why should anyone have to choose between durability and aesthetics?

Early collections explored organic cotton and waxed canvas. While successful, the founders wanted to go further by inventing their own fabric. In 2015, they launched an R&D program with partners in Taiwan and the Philippines. Their ambitious goal was to create a high-performance, entirely bio-based textile capable of rivaling synthetic nylons.

Three years of research culminated in Bananatex - an improbable name for a major innovation. The fabric is made from abaca fibers, a wild banana plant cultivated through agroforestry in the Philippine highlands. It requires no pesticides and no artificial irrigation. The plants grow among other species, supporting local biodiversity. The stalks are harvested, fibers extracted, and the leaves are left on the ground as natural fertilizer.

The production chain spans three continents. Fibers travel from the Philippines to Taiwan, where they are processed into pulp, cut into ribbons, spun, and finally woven. Designs originate in Zurich, while final assembly takes place in Huizhou, China, with a partner that has worked with QWSTION since 2008. A natural beeswax coating ensures the finished fabric is waterproof.

The result is a textile as durable as Cordura but completely biodegradable and compostable. Every bag is designed to be disassembled at the end of its life: the fabric goes to compost, while metal hardware is recycled. Cradle to Cradle Gold certification confirmed what tests already showed. Awards such as the German Federal Ecodesign Award and the German Sustainability Award followed. QWSTION didn't just design a good bag; they invented a material.

Their concept stores in Zurich and Vienna extend this philosophy. These are not traditional retail spaces but platforms where QWSTION bags coexist with other brands that share their standards for quality and responsibility. Every product on display answers the same founding question. Seventeen years later, that answer remains: Bananatex.