For Aleksandra Zee, her second collaboration with MANDRN feels less like a relaunch and more like a continuation. A quiet return to something already lived-in, already loved. The Atlas Pack, unchanged in form yet deepened in meaning, re-emerges as a piece shaped by time, intention, and the beauty of repetition.
“This one feels like a return home,” Aleksandra shares. “Something continued, and deeply intentional.”
Even when a piece stays visually the same, the meaning behind it can shift. How has your relationship with this design evolved since the first release?
Like we do, it’s evolved quietly. Each season carries its own weight, some heavy, some light. There are moments of endurance and moments of ease. This bag has come to represent showing up each day, intentionally, exactly as you are.
This bag was always meant to be worn daily, not treated as something precious. Why was that idea important to preserve in this second release?
I’m drawn to a lived-in life. Not perfection, but presence. I want the things I carry to reflect that, to move through joy, loss, creation, and renewal alongside me. All of it is sacred. All of it deserves to be lived fully.
There’s something powerful about choosing not to change something that already works. How do you recognize that moment in your creative process?
You feel it in your body. It clicks. You want to return to it again and again. When I can’t stop thinking about a piece, when I want to be in the studio constantly, that’s how I know I’m on the right path.
How does revisiting an existing piece challenge you differently than creating something entirely new?
It’s more inward. It mirrors the process of growing into yourself , falling in love with who you are, again and again. The same piece can feel entirely new as the light shifts, perspectives change, and layers fall away.
In your practice, how do you decide when refinement is necessary and when preservation is the more honest choice?
It’s about listening. Paying attention to what’s working and releasing what isn’t , physically and metaphorically. Sometimes stepping away is all it takes to realize that what you wanted to change is already complete.
What parts of this design feel even more meaningful to you now than they did during the first collaboration?
The slowness. Meeting myself where I am. Letting ideas unfold without forcing them. Treating creativity with gentleness instead of urgency. Allowing life to be both beautiful and hard at the same time.
How do you hope this piece will age, both physically and emotionally, in the hands of the people who carry it?
I know it will last a lifetime. I love imagining the marks it will collect, the wear, the stories, the years. We all carry small reminders of our lives with us , stones from hikes, objects from travels. I love that this bag holds those moments, and that it moves through time alongside the person carrying it.
In a world that often values constant newness, why do you think repetition, when intentional, can be powerful?
There’s power in returning to something familiar. Something that grounds you. A piece that works with everything, carries what you need, and only gets better with time. Trends come and go , I’m drawn to heritage pieces, the ones you reach for again and again.
If this Atlas pack were a marker in your career, what would it represent?
My move to the desert. A shift toward slowness. Coming home to myself. Making work that feels fully aligned , and creating a body of work I’m still deeply excited about years later.
What does returning to a collaboration like this reaffirm for you about your values as an artist?
When something is right, it doesn’t need explaining. It fits like it was always meant to be there. It becomes part of you.
