A brief history of KPODONOU bags
Today we would like to share with you a brief story of our bags being produced in our studio in Warsaw. Our original production process is based on a hand-made, 100% sustainable method of manual rolling designed by my beloved mum - Anna.
KPODONOU Messenger Bag was our first flagship product initially launched a few years ago. It all started with my passion for fashion and my mother's passion for handicrafts related to it. Mum has always experimented with various manual forms and together we decided to step into fashion accessories and started to produce our leather bags, belts and collars. Our products were quickly appreciated by my friends and clients of the hairdressing studio, which at that time I was running in a historic tenement house in Warsaw's Powisle. Everyone appreciated the uniqueness of the technique and the fine quality of the products. My mother Anna as a perfectionist would never let anything below 100% of a quality rate out of her studio.
Messenger Bag turned out to be our first bestseller and KPODONOU has it in its offer until today. We have gathered quickly a crowd of "messenger" fans which appreciated the quality, modern design but also - an option of refreshing the design by replacing the belts.
Our offer includes multicolor range of replaceable belts, being produce from stocks (an overproduction) of car belts. Why did we choose car belts instead of typical belts dedicated to handbags? We were looking for the highest quality accessories, it quickly turned out that our imagination went beyond the standard range of leather accessories, so we started to look for an inspiration at our grandfather's workshop.
fot. Magdalena Ławniczak, styl. Ewelina Gralak, model: Sasha Melnychuk, Paris, 2015
Sustainable production of bags
To construct bags, we started to use instead of harmful adhesives - screws, which allowed us to experiment with design and added a special value to the aesthetics of bags.
Since the very beginning, we have been using only ready-made skins, purchasing an overproduction quantities from factories. We do not outsource our own production - we use first-quality materials that are left over from factories. We weave skins, twist and sew them.
In this way, initially unknowingly - we developed a proprietary, sustainable method of producing accessories and we still cultivate this method being extremely proud of it. Many large brands have tried to copy our solution with their industry methods, but due to the "hand-made" nature of our work, the machines are not able to perfectly reproduce the results.
Currently, we offer solutions in various sizes - from small phone/cards cases, through the classic Messenger Bag, to the large Messenger XXL Shopper Bag made of ecological leather. It is also worth mentioning that our offer is not only dedicated to women’s clientele, and our Messenger Bag is not only a women's handbag - all products do not have a dedicated gender (are unisex) and willingly worn by men. We try to blur all boundaries and be guided by values rather than pigeonholing. We believe in great energy, which we try to incorporate into each of our products.