Gabo Szerencses

Some earrings begin with an absence, the piece of leather cut away from the inner curve of a bracelet. Nothing that leaves the cutting table is treated as waste, and the small Zero Waste bags follow the same logic, made from what is left once the larger bags have been produced. Gabo Szerencses has been building the brand since 2008, after training with the masters of the Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest and with teachers in Barcelona. The bags are made in Hungary, in small runs. The designer carries and tests her own models, then reworks them, so that shape never takes precedence over use.

The vocabulary stayed geometric for a long time, close to architecture, with the Y and Trapéz collections, clean lines and unmistakable geometry. The recent pieces move away from that on purpose, in soft leathers that ripple, feminine curves drawn from Asia, down to a belt bag named after a steamed dumpling and a backpack that borrows the shape of a wave. Leather relaxes with use and takes the form of whatever is kept inside; the brand recommends a silicone free beeswax conditioner twice a year. At the Budapest studio shop the colour can be chosen at no extra cost, and anyone can come and learn cutting, edge painting and the precision of gluing.