On Making Fifty-Six

People ask why we stop at fifty-six. The honest answer is that we could make more, and we choose not to.

A drop of fifty-six is enough to do the work properly, and small enough that every piece passes through the same few hands. Beyond that, something is lost. The maker stops knowing each bag. The number stops meaning anything. The object becomes a product.

Vegetable-tanned leather cannot be rushed. The tanning alone takes weeks. The cutting, the stitching, the burnishing of every edge, all of it is done by hand and to no schedule but the work's own. Skill cannot be hurried and time cannot be faked.

So each bag is numbered, stamped inside, and recorded to the person who claims it. When the fifty-six are gone, the collection is closed. That number is never reissued.

It is a slower way to build a brand. We think it is the only honest one.