Feature STORY BY ANGELA MATUA PHOTOS BY ORESTES GONZALEZ Made in NADIRA KHANG NadiraBag Handmade bags for women and men NadiraBag makes handmade, detailed leather bags for men and women using high quality leather. Kang grew up in Marrakesh, Morocco and comes from a family of craftspeople where rug-making and working with leather is part of her family tradition. She learned to work with leather at age 12 from her father and in 2009 came to America to attend LaGuardia Community College. Though she majored in accounting, Kang continued making her leather products and sold them at flea markets in Williamsburg and Chelsea. After operating a successful Etsy store, Kang expanded to NYDesigns, an incubator space in Manhattan in 2014. She traces and cuts her patterns, punches each individual hole and sews the leather together. The last step involves attaching accessories such as buttons, buckles and zippers. She also makes laptop sleeves, duffels, purses, satchels, journals, travel bags, belts, messenger bags, wallets, pouches and weekend bags. To check out her products, visit www.etsyshop.com/shop/nadirabag SANDRA SMITH Sandra Smith LLC Personalized cosmetic bags and home decor Sandra Smitth LLC is a mom-owned business passionate about designing and crafting personalized bags and home decor products that are meaningful, versatile and built to last. Smith constructs each bag by hand and every product is the result of a thoughtful collaboration between designer and customer. Bags comes with a personalized message on the lining and customers can also get their names or initials on the front. Smith uses leather, denim, chevron and linen to create her bags in a veriety of colors and patterns. She also recently started making home decor like linen baskets that can be customized. To check out the products, visit shopsandrasmith.com
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