Lucy is a designer and artisan of contemporary handbags and accessories, from Cambridge, England.
Since 2012, Lucy has designed for a range of iconic British brands, whilst crafting bespoke handbags for selected clients along the way.
The Brand
Her first ready-to-wear collection launched in Autumn 2023, titled ‘Lavender In Hand’.
This project had been formulating in my mind since 2020. The pandemic triggered a life-reset for me, causing me to leave London, and locate back to Cambridgeshire. Once there, the pandemic-induced quiet around me was palpable, forcing the elements of the surrounding Fenlands to creep into my senses; now heightened by those serene days and nights.
Within this seemingly supernatural state, I began to access creative avenues, long abandoned for commerciality, leading to an unmooring of traditional making practices.
What emerged, was a series of bag samples that re-captured my days as a Cordwainer. The wet-moulded curves, the patiently hand-stitched seams, and the surfaces lovingly-lacquered, all combined to speak a language of a brand that stands for low-impact production, and longevity.
This isn’t fast-fashion..
Handmade with love
Lucy’s work plays with established craft practices, and digitised pattern-making, to create bags of sculptural simplicity and timeless elegance, for everyday use.
Each product is made by hand within her London workshop, using grade-A vegetable-tanned leather and organic linens.
Lucy’s work is unmoored from tradition, to create bags of beauty and distinction.
Our Practice
All of our products are produced by hand from vegetable-tanned leather. This is currently the most environmentally responsible leather, as each skin is processed using a combination of naturally occurring tannins such as tree bark, wood, leaves and fruit pods. This ancient process creates a distinctively beautiful material that's rich in tone and natural markings which cannot be emulated by chemically tanned or plastic-faux leather. Through the process of vegetable tanning, leather can mature beautifully over the passage of time. Thus giving each product a unique and personal quality.
For more information regarding the care of our vegetable tanned products, please contact the studio directly at studio@lucywelton.com.