The workshop
KOI Leather is a small workshop in Saigon, Vietnam. We have been making leather goods by hand since 2018 — 8 years of the same few people cutting, stitching and finishing one piece at a time.
A KOI craftsman checks a finished green leather handbag at the workshop in Saigon, with leather hides hanging behind.
How we work
The bags, wallets, belts and straps we make are saddle-stitched by hand with two needles and waxed linen thread. It is slower than a machine and it does not come apart the way a machine seam does: cut one stitch on a hand-sewn seam and the rest holds. Edges are sanded, sealed and burnished by hand, in layers, which is most of why a piece takes days.
A KOI craftsman finishing the edges of a tan quilted leather tote by hand, at the workshop in Saigon.
We buy leather in small lots — calfskin and goatskin from European tanneries, crocodile from Heng Long, and ostrich. Small lots mean we cannot always repeat a colour exactly. When a hide runs out, it runs out, and we will tell you that rather than substitute quietly.
We do not have a showroom abroad, a returns warehouse in your country, or same-week delivery. What we have is the ability to make one specific thing well and tell you the truth about how long it will take.
A KOI Leather craftsman at the workbench, with the lit KOI sign behind, at the workshop in Saigon.
What we are not good for
If you need a piece next week, we are the wrong workshop. If you want something identical to a piece from a large fashion house, we will not copy it — we will make you something of our own design instead. And if you want a hundred units at a price that only a factory can hit, we cannot get there by hand.
Have something in mind?
Tell us what it is. We answer within a business day, Vietnam time.