Old Leather Bags

Once upon a time, I had this “business idea” to design handbags and get them manufactured. There’s something extraordinarily special about handbags in my opinion and I understand them.

The design part to me wasn’t a real problem as there were a few ideas in my mind and I could sketch a little. But to find the right manufacturer? No way.

Initially I set out to look for someone in Italy and Spain. It took 5 weeks to get a response from Spain to my inquiry. Patience is never my strong suit. An Italian company got back to me a littler quicker but they mainly tried to push their existing designs which are heavily “inspired” by big brand names (or shall I say copied?) to me. After a few back and force emails addressing the desire to have my own design manufactured, the communication stopped from the other end.

Then I decided to give Chinese manufacturers a chance though doubted it very much that it would work out in the first place. Long story short, large orders like 500+ pieces are normally required from the Chinese manufacturers. If you want to go with smaller manufacturers… oh well. The quality of samples was ok but they modified a few things from the original design without consent just to make it easier for them. Quality of the final products was disastrous. Those handbags all looked like handbags but don’t touch them. The handles would fall off and linings split shortly after. The leather must have been the cheapest they could find too. It was nothing like that sample leather.

Finally I realized, without a huge budget and a life time dedication, there’s no chance to make it a viable business with my “Have fun and see how it goes” mindset. At that point of time, I wasn’t willing to devote all that effort to pursue it. So that was that.

Couldn’t be happier with the decision to stop right there, right then. That means I can enjoy handbags without all that stress! Nothing beats high quality designer leather handbags. There are a stack of designer leather bags that I’ve been using for years. Funny enough, they are either in tan or brown color, like this Miu Miu 2 way leather bag with long shoulder strap and this Dolce & Gabbana leather bag.