If you ever have the time and the interest to dive into the archives of the Netherlands, focusing on craftsmanship in particular, you will be surprised by what you find.
To me it felt like finding a pot of gold, one that reignited my passion for fine leatherworking. Below are some old pictures from the Dutch archives.
It is so beautiful to see how skilled our Dutch craftsmen were many years ago. Holland has a major history in leather craftsmanship.
In a region called Noord-Brabant there was a road that ran straight through twelve villages in the south of Holland, called the Langstraat, which literally means 'long street' in Dutch. Over more than a hundred years it had grown into the centre of the leather goods industry.
Unfortunately, this great leather industry has been reduced to almost nothing. The production moved to mass-producing factories in low-cost countries.
We have lost so much knowledge, and so many skilled craftsmen. The quality of those mass-produced collections is hard to compare to the quality of the days when everything was still handmade, here, in Holland.
In an earlier story I described the dark side of the fashion industry today, where money and power are the driving force behind many business models, while people suffer on the other side of the world so that large companies can reach their sales targets.
The aim of our atelier is to bring high-quality craftsmanship back to our country and to do it the right way: designing and making bags and accessories that are timeless and sustainable, with a long-term approach.
Love, Safiera ♡
Made in Holland
