My Bag Making Journey...

Collage of some of my very early bags

For most of you that don't know, I am a self taught handbag maker/designer/creator...you get the idea. Deciding I wanted to make bags was small hurdle. Knowing that It was something I had to learn on my own while in law school at the same time didn't make me loose sleep. Making the kind of bags I wanted to do and getting it right however is another thing. Internet service in Nigeria was not as accessible as it is now so a sure way of learning the craft was to teach myself. Now teaching myself involved deconstructing bags to see the components and also see how the pieces were cut and put together. I have deconstructed so many bags (my mom's especially) to get to where I am now, I have bought second hand bags for the sole aim of deconstructing and reconstructing. I collected fashion magazines and spend hours/days just looking at the bags and imagining them in pieces and components. On my first trip abroad - UK to be exact. I remember entering Selfridges and just GAWKING at the bags. I was in bag heaven! You have to understand that these were bags I only saw on pages of magazine and there I was in the same room, sharing the same space with some pretty high end bags. I didn't buy any, I didn't even touch any... frankly I didn't have to because I was already awed...also the price points then was enough to put the fear of God in me lol! But you can trust that I was more than inspired, my whole life then revolved and still revolves around bags. I have walked up to total strangers and complimented them about their bags, even asked to take pictures of their bags. 

This Nkechi bag was made way back in 2007. I remember how proud I was of myself when I made this bag. It was my first time working leather EVER!  I didn't have all the fancy tools and machine I use now, I didn't even know that there was anything called edge kote amongst other hand working tools sef.

Anyways here I am years down the line, though I have gotten better at my craft and I don't deconstruct bags anymore, I know I still have a way to go and a lot more to learn, I am only as good as my last bag! Also, I am my own worst critic ever!

Gotta run, so much to do and so little time. Thank you so much for stopping by, and may your story be like that of the stone rejected by the builders- Ameen 😃

Xoxo