Execution is 90% of everything. I truly believe that. Great ideas come and go, but bringing them to life is what's extremely difficult. And one of the hardest parts of building a bag isn’t the design, the leather, or the hardware. It’s the search for someone — somewhere — to bring your vision to life.
Having lived in and gone to school in Italy, I thought they would definitely be made in Italy - the western capital of leather goods. Or at least in Europe. So I searched everywhere I was "supposed to": Florence, Marche, Milan, to trading correspondence for months with Spain, Turkey, and Portugal. Each country offered promise but came with its own walls... so I took a detour to explore one more place while I was waiting around.
Guangzhou, China. In the end, I found it was (by far) the most palatable place to manufacture (and it wasn't really close). I promise you this was not an option to start. I wanted the "Made in Italy" tag badly, having loved my time there, incorporating many Italian lifestyle values not just into my brand, but into my life.
But let's start with Italy.
Italy carried prestige, but I found dark shadows everywhere. Communication was strained, non-traditional customization was limited, costs were astronomical, and transparency was scarce. One manufacturer flat out refused to show me their manufacturing facilities citing privacy concerns. I had quite the hunch this meant something else, if you've been following the news. Another ghosted me for 5 weeks with the simple excuse "sorry, my secretary never forwarded the emails." The price was also sky high, namely over mid $200's a unit versus half that in China. In both cases, upon initial samples, they were insistent that the designs were realized when the samples were clearly and egregiously off. One manufacturer told me they couldn’t affix waterproof nylon to leather, "no one does that". Pride and inflexibility proved real.
Side Note: I won't even go into the blatant racism experienced from a supplier who told me - "Go to China, its cheaper" when I asked for the price of a certain fabric. Just by virtue of me asking the price per yard. I went to law school in Italy and never experienced that sort of subversive racism, not once. But I digress.
Spain was professional in all their communications; however, the beauty came at an unwarranted price and drudging speed, with limited materials flexibility. Specialty materials were scarce, and if I wanted my designs to live as I imagined them, I’d have to simplify—or charge a small fortune. Neither compromise felt right. Timing was also an issue - everyone was backlogged for months. And I'm not the type to sit on my hands. So we moved on.
Portugal. I had multiple sourcing agents reach out to workshops in Portugal. Portugal - never really got off the ground. Emails were dead for days, if not weeks. Communication was poor, and slow moving. Momentum stalled before it began. Two and a half months after I had initially reached out, one factory came back asking me if I wanted to still move forward, in the next few weeks. For any product based business, supply chain is paramount. This felt wrong from the jump.
Turkey. Responsive and quick. I'll give them that. But the sample was so off. And when discussing the litany of changes I needed, they dragged with a defensive attitude. Not to mention they 2.6x'ed the estimated production costs on me... to the point where "Made in Turkey" was the most expensive option. I did not see that coming. Go figure.
That led me to Guangzhou, the People's Republic of China. I hated that I was here. I hated that I was thinking about it. How could I build a fashion house with "Made in China"? Boy, all my preconceptions were wrong. They proved to be (i) the most responsive, (ii) most accommodating in terms of design execution, (iii) most reliable from a timing and effort standpoint and (iv) with quality indistinguishable from their European compadres. Availability of materials, build quality, custom designs and flexibility - all proved superior.
The samples rivaled Italy’s finest, but without the stubbornness or the sky-high costs. And most importantly, true to design.
In the heart of Guangzhou - which I found out later was called the world's factory (after visiting, you can see why it’s for good reason) - it's an absolutely surreal depth and breadth of manufacturing capabilities.
My friend told me the Chinese slogan - people mountain, people sea. Meaning as far as the eye can see, you can see mountains and people. It should be "people mountain, people sea, people factories". Holy cow. It broke my brain.
DETOUR: Some fun industry facts that are hidden from mainstream media (and I only discovered after spending months there):
Guangzhou isn’t just a massive manufacturing city; it’s the epicenter of the world’s leather trade. Over 8,000 leather businesses operate in Guangzhou alone. In Shiling Town, 65,000 workers produce more than 230 million leather goods annually. Over 500,000 annual buyers from Korea, Italy, Spain, the U.S.... and 36% of all the world’s leather exports are from China.
Shocking numbers.
BACK TO MY JOURNEY: Markets stretch for miles, with thousands of stalls stacked floor over floor, the scent of leather hanging in the air.
I drove all throughout Italy, and let me tell you. There is an undeniable and distinct European craftsmanship heritage running through their veins. Yet, so does China - it just looks a lot different. Here, modernization, availability and efficiency is key - and it makes you feel like anything is possible. In comparison, Italy feels like they're holding onto an old legacy. A single street in Guangzhou can give you the same zipper that runs through a Prada tote, the same dye and weaving techniques used by Bottega Veneta, and the same tanneries that supply everyone from Bang and Olufson to Thom Browne. Flexibility reigns supreme, and scale lives in abundance.
Speed.
Clarity.
Quality.
Flexibility at any scale.
I realized the worst-kept secret of luxury isn’t that it originates in Florence or Paris or Ubrique. It’s actually hiding in plain sight, deep in the markets of that one place we all kind of know (but don’t want to admit) does everything - in southern China, where leather breathes, and ideas take shape in overnight.
Some of these brands could tell you exactly the deal, if they were honest. But that would break the illusion. There's no frills to this place - stuff is efficient, cheap and moves. A lot was learned being on the ground and talking face-to-face to the same suppliers and manufacturers that produce for the global supply chain. That's for another time.
-KIMIAS