Ad| After successfully starting VELT shoes in 2013, Swiss product designers Patrick Rüegg and Stefan Rechsteiner launched their first ladies’ bags collection in 2018.

Patrick and Stefan, how did you come to design ladies’ bags?

Generally, we’ve always been fascinated by the holistic approach to fashion. Already from the beginning of VELT, leather bags and the expansion into the women’s market have been in our heads.

While changing our tannery 2015, we finally took the chance to start designing ladies’ bags and set up our own handbag collection.

What does your first ladies’w bags collection look like?

The ladies’ bags are minimalistic clean and come in geometric shapes. Corresponding to VELT shoes, the bags are made with as little leather pieces and stitches as possible, as well as raw edges.

The collection contains a big bucket bag for a woman’s daily life. Next to a small removable pouch, also a 15“ laptop fits in. The main handle can be divided into two parts and thus be worn as a backpack. It is accompanied also by a small bucket bag.

A coin wallet, cardholder, neck wallet, and a key holder complete our collection.

Each leather good is handmade from German premium leather which has especially been developed in accordance with our ideas and needs. Our colour range stretches from black, over brown, nude, to white and blue.

Sustainability and transparency play a key role for your brand. In which way?

Sustainability for us not only means short distances for our supply chain – e.g. we produce our handbags in Hungary – or valuing leather as a natural product using as little chemicals and coatings as possible. Therefore, every structure of the leather is still visible.

You can see all the veins, sometimes even mosquito bites. It is a remarkable sign of quality and makes the material exceptionally valuable.

We believe the focus on showing the bareness of the material makes every bag unique. There are hardly other brands that show the characteristics of the material in the same way as we do.

For us, quality is very important. We aim to produce high-quality leather goods which accompany our customers for a long time and bring them joy in their daily lives. Therefore, we also offer a repair service for all our items.

Which advice would you give future handbag label founders based on your experiences from developing your ladies’ bags collection?

Don’t walk alone. Walk together. Use synergies and cooperate with other creative professionals like photographers, architects, or designers like we did. With Velt Studio we built our own creative environment – a studio collective in Berlin.

Between architects, photographers, fashion and jewellery designers we have our own photo studio, sewing and cutting atelier and a woodwork studio which we use for our purposes and a part of them we rent to other brands.

Where are your ladies’ bags available?

Our bags are available at our Onlineshop, in Berlin at Baerck and at selected stores in Switzerland and Europe.

More information about VELT and its ladies’ bags can be found on their website and on Instagram.

© Pictures: VELT

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