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Holloway & Wren
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A leatherworking bench laid out with a cutting mat, round knives, edge bevellers, a spool of red waxed thread and a half stitched tan pouch

Made by hand on Wharf Street

Carry less, keep it longer.

Wallets, belts and bags cut from vegetable tanned leather and sewn by hand with waxed linen. Made by two people, repaired by the same two for life.

Shop the range

From the bench this month

Made to be used daily

See all 13 pieces
A finished tan card holder on a green cutting mat beside a stitching awl, with a roll of cognac leather on the walnut bench

01 · The bench

One hide, one pair of hands, start to finish.

We do not split the work into stations. Whoever cuts a wallet also skives it, stitches it and burnishes the edges, so every piece has one maker who knows exactly how it went together.

Take a look

Shop by kind

Three things, done well

Three snap card cases in cognac, natural and chestnut on cream paperWallets and cardsFrom $58 A cognac messenger bag with chestnut straps and brass ringsBagsFrom $145 Three leather belts in tan, black and dark brown with square bucklesBelts and strapsFrom $64

How it is made

Six steps, no shortcuts

A Casco Bifold takes about three and a half hours. Most of that is stitching and edges, the two jobs a machine does fastest and worst.

Two hands pulling waxed thread through a line of stitching holes in a strip of tan leather on a dark cutting mat

  1. Choose the hide

    Every hide is checked on the bench under a daylight lamp. Belts come from the firm bend, wallets from the softer shoulder.

  2. Cut by hand

    Pieces are cut with a round knife against steel patterns, nested by eye to work around scars and keep waste low.

  3. Skive and punch

    Edges are thinned so seams lie flat, then stitching holes are struck with diamond irons at eight to the inch.

  4. Saddle stitch

    Two needles on one waxed linen thread. If one stitch is ever cut, the line around it holds.

  5. Burnish and finish

    Edges are bevelled, sanded through three grits and rubbed with beeswax until they shine like wood.

  6. Sign the inside

    The maker strikes their initial and the month inside every piece, so a repair always comes back to the same bench.

Hands setting a rivet with a steel press on a cluttered green workbench lit by a single lamp

Lifetime repairs

Send it back worn, not thrown out.

A popped stitch, a tired strap, a snap that has seen ten thousand closings. Post it to the workshop and we fix it at no charge, for as long as we are at the bench.

Take a look

Carry less, keep it longer.

Showroom open Thursday to Sunday on Wharf Street. Hours and directions