Fashion and luxury handbags have inspired me since I was a teenager. When I was at school, I used to adore the latest bags from luxury labels in magazines and shop windows and knew that one day I would want to have one of these.
At the same time, I have always been a money saver, 3,000 euros for a handbag is not just something you spend without overthinking quite a few times. During school and university, such a purchase was out of the question. Then I said to myself: When I have my first full-time job, I will put some money aside every month for a year and then treat myself to my dream bag.
After that year it didn't become the absolute luxury model, but a bag for 400 Euros - I just couldn't bring myself to give up a three-week holiday in Australia for it!
I like and still use my bag to this day. But what I noticed right from the start despite all the love for my beautiful bag: Basically it "only" consists of four different cut parts - so it is not very complex in terms of design and construction.
Since I always liked to sew and draw, I thought: "Maybe I can do that too!"
I learned about leathercrafts, sewing, cutting and gluing leather, and edge finishing. I ordered tools, bought leather, searched for metal details and tried it. Eternal hours and many YouTube tutorials later I held a finished handbag in my hands. Anything but perfect, but: a selfmade leather handbag.
What struck me most about that time: information to expand one's own knowledge is rare. Besides, you hardly finds instructions for beautiful and modern leather bags. Pieces that can be made with tutorials that exist are not very feminine and have little in common with the designs of great luxury brands.
The traditional leathercraft is - like every craft - of course nothing that everyone can do just like that. For a short time I even thought about an apprenticeship. In my adopted home of Munich and the surrounding area however, there hasn't been a single company in the last three years that has trained fine bag makers. This fact surprised me so much and I found it such a pity that such an admirable profession is almost extinct! I wanted to do my part to make this kind of manual work more appreciated again and to make it possible for everyone, DIY-affine or not, to approach such a topic.
My goal with the DIY boxes: To give people interested in this craft an understanding of leather craftsmanship without any huge investments for tools and materials, whilst the process is easy and fun.
In my opinion, the feeling of having accomplished something along with a high-quality finish should always be the result. Handmade is great - but if the bag looks too much like DIY, it is not a fashion statement anymore.
After the idea, it took almost a year until the first prototype of a DIY box from BAGS & PIECES, including many setbacks, various rescheduling and quite some visits to trade fairs and suppliers in Italy.
My biggest challenges were, first of all, putting together the necessary materials in small quantities, finding affordable tools and preparing the leather in a way that no machines are needed at home for finishing the bag.
When if comes to the styles we offer at BAGS & PIECES, I find it very important to design pieces that are timeless but stylish at the same time. If you invest heart and soul and time into crafting your accessory, I think you should have something that at the end, is not out of style after one season. In other words, an accessory that you use with pride for many years.
The workmanship and longevity play an important role in addition to the visual appearance. Our DIY boxes contain everything you need to make your own leather accessories - materials, tools and step-by-step instructions. But the result not only looks high quality, but truly is.
In the end you have a stylish unique piece, of which you can say with confidence: “I made this myself".
I hope you enjoy the boxes as much as I do - and I hope you enjoy getting creative and then showing around your BAGS & PIECES leather accessories!
Founder of BAGS & PIECES
PS: If you like, you can share your make with me on Instagram and tag us with #mybagsandpieces link. I'm happy about every make I see - like a little child having its birthday every day in a row! Because every accessory is unique, made by you.
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