Rowena Sanderson came from a family of makers, so for her, it was a natural progression into later creating and designing her own brand, Sonder and Wilde.
From a young age, Sanderson was taught to sew by her mother, which got her experimenting with different styles and fabrics. From there, she enrolled at Wintec in Hamilton to study fashion design.
During her time at school, she got the opportunity to work with the design and production team for a New Zealand designer in the Waikato. But it was during a leather workshop in Florence that kick-started her passion for working with leather materials and helped her find the inspiration to create her own leather goods brand.
“I had a background in design and pattern making; from there, I decided I wanted to teach myself more about how leather works,” she said.
The creative process for Sanderson is mainly driven by practicality, versatility and creativity. Each of her designs, although simple, exists to solve a problem. Every piece is built for purpose and style while ensuring the wearer that their bag or wallet is ethically and consciously made.
All pieces are cut, glued, shaped, stitched and then finished by hand by Sanderson from soft New Zealand top-grain leather in her home studio in the North Shore of Auckland. She also has hopes in the future for at least one of her bag designs to be produced in an ethically run factory offshore.
“The notion of NZ made is something I am quite proud of as a Kiwi. Where possible, I source leather from NZ tanneries, and the hardware is mostly sourced globally.”
She expressed that leather can vary and serve different purposes for different styles. For example, a soft, slouchy bag would need to be constructed with soft deer skin. As for a more structured bag, cow, goat, or kangaroo skin works best.
Sanderson believes the beauty of handmade goods lies in the imperfections. Designing a new piece has no end and is constantly refined. It can take hundreds of hours of lessons and experiments to ensure high quality, authenticity, creativity and dedication.
