How small labels out‑craft the heritage brands' handbags
TikTok's favourite leather expert Tanner Leatherstein can usually be found ripping designer bags apart, so we asked him for his insights.
Volkan Yilmiz, aka Tanner Leatherstein, knows more than most about what makes an exceptional bag. On TikTok and YouTube, he can be found ripping, slashing, snipping and occasionally burning his way through some of the world’s most coveted bags to determine if they’re worth the price tag. It’s an oddly meditative process to watch, the finished article reduced to its component parts – stitches undone, leather peeled back – before a pronouncement is made.
Having grown up on his family’s tannery in Turkey, these days Yilmiz is based in Dallas, where he broadcasts his findings to a social media audience of millions. 1 Granary previously spoke to him about deglamourising designer brands and the shifting landscape of luxury. Now, we’ve gone back to drill down into the details and find out what to look for when it comes to leather.
Are there any bags you have taken apart recently that have surprised you, either because the quality is really good or really bad?
Probably the latest one would be the Louis Vuitton Pico. I bought it last year and dissected it. That's a special bag. Great leather, great craftsmanship, complex design, looks beautiful. Of course, it's expensive, but when you're paying top dollar, I expect that sophistication. A lot of Bottega pieces [have] that feeling. Perhaps the other one is Loewe. Very good leather, insanely good leather.
Conversely, anything that’s been disappointing?
Recently, I was working on a Prada Cleo bag, which I bought from Fashion File. It was so bad that I questioned if it was authentic or not for a while. I took the bag around the world to show it to different authenticators and workshops who worked with Prada. A lot of people suspected the bag to be a really good fake. But eventually, when I dissected it, the things I found, the materials, I confirmed with some people I found internally at Prada. They said, “Yes, this is an authentic bag, because inside everything is the way we do it”… That surprised me.