Object of Desire: Lotuff Leather Handbag with Curve Appeal

Photograph by Toan Trinh

It’s hardly hyperbole to call the handbags constructed at Providence, Rhode Island’s Lotuff Leather works of art. When creative director Lindy McDonough brought the majority of the company’s manufacturing in-house five years ago, she set out to build an artist-based studio, not a factory. “We essentially created a leather-working school,” McDonough says. Some of the employees graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design; many maintain their own artistic practices on the side. And considering each handmade bag takes four weeks to complete and involves upward of 190 steps from cutting to stitching to painting, the finished product—like this curvy creation—could reside as comfortably on the mantel as in a closet.

“The Rho” leather handbag, $990, Lotuff Leather.