Bags of ideas

NEW-WAVE entrepreneur Rawiwan Worasinsiri, the third generation member of a 50-year-old leather product manufacturer in Sampeng market, has broken away from her family business to create more up-to-date designs.

Her aim, she says, is to offer a series of top quality genuine leather products that everyone can afford and also satisfy the demand for smart designs for the urban lifestyle.

Rawiwan, a business management graduate from Australia, set up the Vara brand in mid-2014, with a friend, Varunya Aungrattanun. Both keen collectors of bags, they named the brand by combing the first letters of their first names in play on the word for agenda.

They started from a small booth at Chatuchak Weekend Market, where they scored a hit with young shoppers and foreigners. 

A few months later, they opened the first shop at Terminal 21 and showcased their creations at Bangkok International Gifts and Houseware Fairs, Baan Lae Suan Fair and the SME Expo. 

With a minimal-yet-trendy design and some fine stitching techniques, they quickly acquired orders from buyers in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, China and South Korea and now the brand has a sole distributor in Taiwan.

“Actually, I wanted to modernise my family’s products but they disagreed with me. So, I persuaded my friend to establish our own brand. We had no design skills but we love collecting bags. We know what users want. We started from paper sketches and we learned about sewing techniques from veteran leatherworkers from my family’s factory,” Rawiwan says.

“We want to offer top quality genuine leather bags at affordable prices. We use premium leather of the same grade as the Italian brand Viera by Regazze. Our bags look simple, smart and can be mixed and matched for any occasion. We also offer a lifelong warrantee and after-sales service.”

Under a concept utilising the true beauty and effortless charm of leather, their minimalist-style designs focus on showcasing the texture of the leather, using the smallest amount of metal hardware to make the bags lightweight and classy. 

The main materials include semi-vegetable tanned leather, suede and buffalo leather imported from Europe, Pakistan and India. The bags come in small sizes but are functional with many pockets, while straps can adjust to two or three styles. 

“Our leather is washed with resin and some chemical substances to keep its texture soft. We’re developing waterproof leather too.” Rawiwan says. “Our new designs will come out in four collections a year, based on fashion trends.” 

Vara is introducing the Semicolon collection for autumn/winter that includes round-shaped, cross-body 

 bags, Puff clutches, Toast-shaped 17-inch notebook bags and Pancake backpacks made from semi-vegetable tanned leather. 

Other top-selling editions are the Naked bucket bag made from grained nubuck leather which is lined with premium soft velvet, an Undressed suede bag with an adjustable strap and detachable fringe and Undressed to Go suede backpacks with a removable side fringe that can double as a cross-body bag.

“We just welcomed a new shareholder, who is operating the world-class tannery Creative Performance Leather. That means we can access newer innovations and fashion trends faster and gives us a wider choice of leather,” Rawiwan says.

Vara also has a branch at Chatuchak Weekend Market and counters at CentralWorld, Siam Paragon and Another Story at EmQuartier.

 

PAY A VISIT TO VARA

Vara is situated on the third floor of Terminal 21, Street 4 zone. It’s open daily from 10 to 10. 

Call (096) 251 1996 or visit www.Varabrand.com and “VaraLeather” page on Facebook.