Shopping

Kelly Nash leather bags and accessories (feature)

05th February 2010

Kelly Nash is carefully unwrapping her handmade bags and placing them on the floor of the ZedShed in Penryn’s Jubilee Wharf.

It’s the perfect space - modern, young, and individual, just like Kelly’s bags.

Each one is irresistible... you want to run your thumbs over its surface, peek inside, inhale its saddlery scent.

Watch out, girls – as far as arm candy goes, this stuff is mouth-watering.

“Leather is such an amazing material to work with,” says Kelly, 28.

“I never get bored because the variety is fantastic. There are so many textures and colours... each one has its own character.”

Like a sculptor who finds the shape inside the marble, Kelly finds the bag inside the leather.

“A structural leather makes a structural shape,” she said, “and for a softer leather I will design a softer shape. The leather is my starting point.”

Her Morwenna bag is seductively soft, an aubergine band draped round a sleek black pouch.

In contrast, the brown Jenna bag with gold buckles stands to attention with smart simplicity.

Not only are they beautiful - they are made with an end-user’s practicality.

“I always make sure they sit squarely on their bottoms and hang right on your arm,” Kelly says.

“And I put in pockets for phones, because there’s nothing more annoying than having to rummage around whenever it rings!

“Whenever I make a bag, I spend a long time thinking: who will use this? Where will they take it? What will they put inside it? I also love bright colours.”

These choices informed Kelly’s evening bag range, including the midnight suede Demelza, with an exaggerated scoop outline, and the petite gold Merryn.

Kelly is showing me her capsule collection, which she has spent years developing.

A graduate of Falmouth College’s textile course, she originally thought that her future lay in her specialist subject, weaving.

“When you’ve just graduated you feel all confident – I was going to make a fortune hand-weaving,” she says. “Then, when you get some actual business advice, it seems quite unrealistic.

“An adviser suggested handbags, so I did a few short courses in London, and I loved it right away.”

Soon afterwards, Kelly was contacted by a stockist from Somerset, who kept beautiful leathers from around the world in his garage.

For Kelly, it was an Aladdin’s cave. “It all fell into place,” she says.

Style-wise, it took her a lot of experimenting to make her mark.

“I wanted to use traditional materials, but add a bit of a twist,” she says. “I don’t like fussy designs – they have to be simple yet striking. I finally got something I thought was good.

“Now I feel like it’s finally there, that people could recognise my style.”

Kelly’s prices reflect the bags’ material and their workmanship: most cost over £100. But she is sure that today’s shop-smarter women will invest.

“I feel a lady will pay a bit more for real leather, and something that’s unique,” she says. “These bags will last a lifetime.”

One of Kelly’s techniques is laser cutting, for which she still uses the college’s facilities.

“They have a great incubation programme for new businesses,” she says.

The technique allows Kelly to pick out her relief designs, such as a large flower in black and white, and her airplane motif, which she also uses on passport wallets.

I love this design: it reminds me of the businesslike glamour of 1960s air travel, especially in red and navy.

In fact the inspiration was an air day at RNAS Culdrose.

“We took loads of photographs of the planes, and I used them to make a silhouette,” Kelly says.

“Blokes really like this one – they’re quite interested in what I do. I think that’s because working with leather requires quite a bit of muscle, they are intrigued.”

Modest Kelly, who works from a small Falmouth studio, is not looking forward to her next step: selling.

She’s had a great response at local events such as the Hidden Art fairs - now she has to find stockists, commissions, and, ideally, a buyer.

“I need someone famous to wear one!” she says.

For more information see www.kellynashtextiles.com

GILLIAN MOLESWORTH

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