Why We Don't Want Our Leather Bags to Look Perfect

There’s something we’ve never wanted: Our leather bags to be perfect. Not because we don’t care about quality, it’s literally the opposite.

We care about the quality of our leather, the craftsmanship that goes into every bag, and the people who make them. But when you work with natural leather and traditional handmade techniques, perfection in the modern, mass-produced sense isn’t the goal.

And we think that’s a good thing.

Leather is a natural material

Every piece of leather has its own character. You might notice a small variation in the grain, a subtle change in colour, a crease or a tiny mark. These things are sometimes described as imperfections, but to us, they’re simply part of what makes leather leather.

Unlike synthetic materials, which can be manufactured to look almost identical from one piece to the next, natural leather carries the history of the hide it came from. No two pieces are ever the same. This means your bag may have small differences from the one pictured on our website, and it’s this uniqueness that we have championed since day one of our business.

Handmade means individual

Our leather goods are handmade in Morocco by skilled artisans who have learned their craft through years of experience. When something is made by hand, it has a personality that you simply don't get from something produced entirely by machines. There can be subtle differences in stitching, shape, texture and finish. They don't detract from the finished product; they are reminders that a real person has been involved in making it. Sometimes the stitching isn’t perfectly straight or and edge is a little bit rough but this is all part of the appeal. A handmade leather bag shouldn't look like it came off a production line where thousands of identical pieces are made to the millimetre.

Why we choose traditional craftsmanship

This is just one of the reasons we're proud to work with Moroccan artisans.

Morocco has a long and celebrated tradition of leather craftsmanship, and traditional techniques remain an important part of the country's leather-making culture. Our products aren't designed to be disposable fashion pieces. They're made with the intention that you'll use them for years. We want you to be able to look at your bag after five or ten years and see the life it's lived. That's a very different idea of beauty from something that has to remain pristine.

Perfect isn't the same as beautiful

In a world where so much is filtered, polished and mass-produced, we think there's something refreshing about owning something that shows where it came from. A little variation in the leather. A slightly different grain. A slightly wonky stitch that makes your bag unique. The evidence of the hands that made it.

These aren't things we want to hide. They're part of the reason we love handmade leather goods in the first place. So, when your new Berber Leather bag arrives and you notice that the leather isn't completely uniform, don't see it as a flaw. See it as part of its character.

And then use it. Because we'd much rather our bags looked lived in, loved and uniquely yours than perfectly untouched. If you think it’s time you added one of our bags to your collection, click here to see all the beautiful lines we have in stock.