It’s one of the phrases we hear most: “let me know when it's in black leather.” The speaker is almost always a New Yorker—it’s in our blood. Black leather transcends boroughs and blocks, decades and trends, styles and seasons (fashion's and Mother Nature’s). And while ONA has released bags in black before, in our six year history we’ve never used it in our most popular silhouettes.
So today we're proud to release five of our bags in full-grain black leather for the first time: the Bowery, Prince Street, and Brixton messenger bags; the Kingston briefcase, and the Clifton backpack. Detailed with antique brass, the collection nods to the leather motorcycle jackets worn by our style icons, as well as the black-painted storefronts and gold-leaf-lettered windows we pass every day in SoHo. Like every bag we produce, we designed this collection to be timeless - both in style and build.
To launch the Black Leather Collection, we asked five of the most talented people we know to put the collection to use in their daily creative lives. We’ll be sharing more of their stories in the following days and weeks—and all five happen to be must-follows on Instagram:
- Fliickman: The whole ONA office looks forward to visits from the NYC-based Leica and iPhone shooter, who documents the Big Apple with curiosity, reverence, and many coffees.
- Nicole Mason: Based in Portland, OR, Nicole’s studio art background comes through in both her photography and what she does with it - like her sublime three-part series of a single chair, or how she arranges and juxtaposes prints, Polaroids, and handwritten journal entries.
- Dan Rubin: Our man in London and ______ (wherever he happens to be at the moment). Stay tuned for a "week-in-the-life" of one of the busiest and most multi-faceted photographers we know.
- Julie Van Daele: The mind behind LA’s Well-Received, which elevates traditional forms like flat card stationery with natural materials and textures, in a way that’s both subversive and restrained.
- Gregory Woodman: Gregory recently took the Leather Clifton backpack up and down the west coast of the United States with an all-star line-up of musicians and filmmakers for the West Coast Ghost tour.
Above: Fliickman's Bowery bag.
Finally, the black leather Bowery will also be riding along for NYFW with a veteran NYC street style photographer, and we’ll be attending and supporting two Brooklyn photography events—WRKSHP and NYCWLK 2.0—over the next week. Follow @ONAbags on Instagram for more announcements and to see more of the Black Leather Collection.