Caroline Sherman’s Among Equals store in Sydney’s Paddington is a scene of technicolour wonder.

Hanging off hooks fixed to bamboo poles that stretch to the ceiling are rows of neon-bright and natural-fibre bilums, a type of traditional bag from Papua New Guinea. Made by local women using either upcycled knitwear (its wool unravelled and hand-rolled on the knee); or fibres from pandanus or sisal that’s dyed using berries, barks, leaves and clay, the yarn is then woven into graphic-patterned bags. Varying in body size and strap lengths, each one is a piece of wearable art.