Jack II Bag: A New Form for a Museum Material

The Jack Bag was born at ReCreate from a light, resistant micro-perforated advertising banner. It became one of those objects that opened a new path in the studio: practical, strong, generous in scale and connected to movement.

Its name came from Jack, the industrial sewing machine that became part of ReCreate’s daily process and allowed new models to take shape with more precision, structure and freedom.

Later, during a visit to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a different material caught our attention. It had previously been used in the museum’s light boxes — a translucent, technical surface with a very particular presence.

It was not a neutral material. It had already carried light, image and information inside a cultural space. At ReCreate, that kind of material immediately suggests possibility.

This was the beginning of the Jack II Bag.

From Light Box to Everyday Object

Before becoming a bag, the material was tested in the studio.

Its resistance, elasticity, texture and behaviour under the sewing machine all had to be understood. Reclaimed materials often ask for this kind of dialogue. They do not arrive as blank surfaces. They arrive with memory, limits and unexpected qualities.

The Jack II Bag keeps the functional structure of the original Jack model, including its spacious format, two internal pockets and versatile straps. But its surface brings a different visual language.

The material from the Gulbenkian light boxes gives the piece a new kind of presence — lighter, more graphic and closely connected to its previous life.

Design as Continuity

For ReCreate, this project is about more than reusing a material.

It is about continuity.

A material that once belonged to a museum environment now becomes part of everyday life. It moves from exhibition space to body, from light box to object, from communication support to design piece.

The collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reinforces this idea: materials connected to culture can continue to carry meaning beyond their first function.

The Jack II Bag is a practical object, but also a trace of transformation. It holds the memory of where the material came from and gives it a new form, a new use and a new story.

This is where ReCreate’s work lives: between material, design and the possibility of seeing value in what already exists.