THIS MAKER KEEPS PROCESSES SIMPLE FOR HER LINE OF ELEGANT BAGS AND PACKS, INCLUDING ASSEMBLING AND STITCHING IN HER CARROLL GARDENS APARTMENT

BY ERIK SCHONING

In the free for all world of online shopping, from Ebay to Etsy, there’s no shortage of the handmade. Crafty products are the order of the day, their popularity an understandable response to an age of unethical production and desperate sameness. Buying handcrafted, however, can also mean embracing the occasional irregularity, with the best craft goods usually straddling the line between authenticity and simply looking nice.

Enter Shana Luther Handbags, a DIY operation that makes bags and other leather products so simple in design and artful in execution that they make at once charming and irrelevant such complications. Luther lives in Carroll Gardens with her husband, two children, and dog, and produces items at home with the aid of a small team. It’s a nice setup, but like all functional operations, it required build time and backstory.

“I told my parents I wanted to come to Brooklyn from Columbus, Ohio, when I was seventeen,” said Luther. “And I’ve been here ever since.” That city adventure began with attending Pratt as an undergrad (Luther fell in love with the look of the place after seeing it advertised at a college fair), then moving on to a stretch in a theatrical costume shop.

Broadway productions, she explained, often require multiple sets of costumes to account for matinee and evening shows plus usual wear and tear. The resulting pace of work was revelatory.
“The main thing I learned there was the art of quality craftsmanship,” she said. “Costumes are worn, sweated in, and laundered up to eight times a week, so you better be damn sure they can hold up to that.”

Double stitched seams and selecting quality fabrics these were some of the skills Luther took away from her time in the theater world. Today they are evident in her handbags, backpacks, and smaller items like clutches durable, put together pieces all. Though Luther makes these items at home, you wouldn’t guess it: Linings are sourced from California, leather from a distributor in Queens that in turn sources from Brazil and Argentina. Prices range from $115 clutches to $350 to $375 backpacks and totes.

“It’s a passion of mine,” Luther said. “It seems silly, but handbags are my jam. It’s what I enjoy doing. You have to have that or else the brand isn’t going to sustain itself.”

And sustained it has; Shana Luther handbags continues to sell its pieces online, but has also expanded into retail its products appearing in storefronts in California, Seattle, Detroit, and Cleveland. Luther’s success is due in part to their universal look she keeps things simple, including an understated selection of colors like oak, bone, and chestnut.

“When I started, the stuff I was doing was very bright and colorful,” she said. “Now it’s much more streamlined, for all kinds of women. I had to go through all of those steps to come to the place I’m at now.”

She elaborated that, rather than go for the eye popping and unorthodox designs with which some designers have had success, the newer approach has been towards accessories that can be at home everywhere, on Fifth Avenue or at the deli; totes and bucket bags designed to be everyday companions.

Though her work has been selling across the world, Luther has no plans to leave the borough she’s called home. Raising two kids, sourcing materials, designing, making and selling these are major undertakings, but all a little bit easier to manage in a place that simply feels right.

“The community, the style, the way everyone supports one another just makes me be so happy to be here,” she said. “I’m inspired on the daily here by all walks of life, and that inspiration transforms into creativity.”

Shana Luther
shanaluther.com