I grew up in Moldova, surrounded by people who knew how to make things with their hands.

Craftsmanship wasn’t called craftsmanship. Nobody explained to me that it was special. People simply made things, repaired things, changed things and found solutions.

Apparently, I took this rather seriously.

At thirteen, I started altering my mother’s clothes because I thought they could look better.

I am not entirely sure whether she had asked for this service.

At twenty, I opened my first small atelier.

Looking back, the pattern was already there: I see something, imagine it differently and then have considerable difficulty leaving it alone.

Not much has changed.

There was a new country, a new language, a young son, a new life to build — and eventually the need to create again.

PHILINI began in 2009.

I didn’t start it because the world was desperately waiting for another handbag brand.

It wasn’t.

I started because I wanted to make things again.

And because I was increasingly fascinated by the connection between an object and the person who chooses to live with it.

Of course, PHILINI has a target customer. We have spreadsheets too.

But creatively, that has never been where things begin for me.

They begin with people.

I can notice a woman on the street because of the way she walks, the way she combines something completely unexpected, her face, her profession, her attitude — sometimes I don’t even know exactly what caught my attention.

I just want to know more.

Many women who became part of PHILINI were never professional models.

They had real jobs, real families, real lives and, very often, absolutely no intention of becoming part of a fashion campaign when I first met them.

Somehow, they did.

Photography became inseparable from PHILINI because it allows me to do something I love just as much as designing: observe people.

Sometimes a woman inspires a photograph.

Sometimes a photograph inspires a bag.

Sometimes a piece of leather starts the whole problem.

This is generally how PHILINI works.

I have nothing against a beautiful logo.

I simply don’t think it should have to do all the work.

For me, luxury is more interesting when you discover it slowly: in the leather, the construction, a proportion, the inside of a bag, a detail you didn’t notice immediately.

Every PHILINI bag is carefully handcrafted.

Some are already made and waiting in our atelier. Many are created after an order is placed. And sometimes a client arrives with an idea that leads us somewhere completely different.

Those become Bespoke pieces.

This is probably my favourite part of designing — when we don’t yet know exactly what the final answer will be.

I work with leather because it has a life of its own.

It has grain, marks, differences and character. It changes when you use it. It remembers being touched.

I find that much more interesting than something that remains perfectly untouched forever.

Handmade objects are similar.

I care enormously about quality. Probably sometimes more than is convenient for everyone around me.

But I don’t want PHILINI pieces to feel sterile.

I want them to feel considered, beautifully made and alive.

There is a difference.

Since 2009, it has become a strange and wonderful archive of people, photographs, leather, prototypes, conversations, experiments, successes and a respectable number of ideas that initially seemed impossible.

Some worked.

Some absolutely did not.

The useful thing about both is that they usually lead somewhere.

And after all these years, I am still curious about what comes next.

A new woman I haven’t met yet.

A material I haven’t worked with.

A shape that doesn’t quite exist.

A photograph I can already see in my head.

Or a client who walks into the atelier and says:

“I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’s possible.”

Those are dangerous words around me.

Because my first thought is usually:

Let’s see.

I don’t want a PHILINI bag to tell the world what status you have.

I want it to become part of your life until, eventually, it carries something much more interesting:

your story.

Own your story.

Nataly Brunner
Founder & Designer, PHILINI