About Cuskina - Luxury handbags

Welcome to cuskina.

In 2008, whilst recovering from a car accident,I started sketching ideas for handbag designs.
What began as a small project, quickly snowballed into an uncanny chain of events. During a last minute flight to Italian trade fair ‘Lineapelle,' I found myself seated next to International Design consultant Anthony Vrahimis. Recognised throughout the industry for his creative & immaculate leatherwork, Anthony has a notable range of clients from Mulberry to Tom Ford. It wasn’t long before I was at his North London Studios being tutored in handbag design techniques, pattern cutting and handbag construction. His infectious passion for detail and accuracy had an immediate and lasting effect in directing me towards my ultimate goal.

Recognising a gap in the UK market for a luxury design brand using environmentally friendly materials, I began an extensive search to find the best leather & fabrics of this kind and appropriate production techniques. Surprised to find how commonly used chrome dyes can cause skin irritations and heath risks, I started to investigate further and found that many widely used production methods  can pose a variety of heath problems. My quest then became to make handbags that would be not only environmentally friendly but also kind to the humans who are using them. I made it a priority to source sustainable leather, not only vegetable tanned, but also free from many of those other harsh toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, biocides, heavy metals and aromatic amines, which I was shocked to discover are often found in leather products.

An email request to buy wool, led me to designing and producing a small collection of handbags for award winning ethical fashion company ‘Izzy Lane.' They were exhibited at shows including Pret a Porter in Paris and London Fashion week. Designed using the company’s own fabric, one bag in particular caught the eye of online fashion magazine ‘greenmystyle.com’ voting it within their top 10 shoes & accessories seen at ‘Esthetica’ in London fashion Week, february 2009.

Excited to press on with my own project, I continued to develop ideas.

The first bag in my collection, the Margarita, has the practical benefits of being an all leather product making it indispensable for every day use. The other designs that you can see on the website combine the interesting textures of wool and leather creating a distinctive look that I love and hope you will too.

As cuskina continue to grow and develop as a company, so too will our commitment to find more effective, ethically sustainable solutions within each stage of product development.

Amanda