How this all started 40 years ago….
My leather crafting started when I was 17 years old. I worked at a parttime job for a small company called Cyclepaks. They manufactured leather bicycle bags. The shop was on Long Island and the products were mostly sold in NYC. I started as a leather seamstress. My boss, who I would love to find, was a leather genius. His name is Jim Stowell, if anybody knows him, please direct him to this blog. The company did not last very long, it was a partnership but Jim did all of the work. Jim then started designing handbags. At this, he was genius. He met this woman and started dating her, together they created a company called Victoria Leather in the 70′s. His designs were unique in the handbag field as they were constucted using garment leather. Most of the leather bags at that time were made with stiff leather, the kind you can tool, but his innovative designs took off. This small company moved to PA and I came too. It was Jim, the chick he was dating and me. It was a small 3 person company. We would all spend 2 weeks crafting these gorgeous bags and then he would drive to NYC and peddle them on consignment to little leather shops. Every single bag was sewn by me, the only seamstress. Many of them, 40 years later, I’m sure still exist, which is quite cool when you think about it. The leather bags I sewed still hang in closests and over shoulders to this day, I am sure of it.
