All of Sydnie Peebles’ pursuits are deeply personal, and her hand-stitched Sydnie Banks handbags are no exception. The brand and barn owl logo honor her first child, Banks, who was stillborn. Since his passing, birds have appeared to Peebles at the most tender times.
Apprenticeships with bespoke bootmaker Lisa Sorrell in Guthrie and master saddle stitcher Charlie Trevor in Winston, England, have shaped Peebles’ meticulous craftsmanship. She sketches and cuts the handbag patterns herself and only uses the finest materials: one-of-a-kind leathers, beeswax procured from a family hive and all-natural linen thread.
Peebles is also revealing her latest Sydnie Banks collection in the most personal way. Though her bags appeared on the New York Fashion Week runway last fall, this year she’s presenting an exclusive fashion show in her Edmond home. The October event will celebrate Peebles’ partnerships with artist Sharon Lee Clark and florist Le Bloom, both from Dallas. We recently spoke with Peebles about her artistic approach to leatherwork.
How and when did you discover creating with leather?
I was getting my degree in art in 2010; I was in this realm of trying to figure out what it is that I want to do. I stumbled across a YouTube video of a Hungarian man named Marcell Mrsan, and he was hand-making a pair of men’s dress shoes … I watched video after video after video after video, and it was like a light bulb went off in my head … I called my dad after I watched these videos, and I was like, “Dad, I finally figured out what I want to do.”
Speaking of, what role did your father, H. Kreg Harrison, play in your art journey?
My dad was an artist — a bronze sculptor — for a living … He just said, “Do what you love, and you’ll never feel like you work a day in your life.” He also valued handmade things, so I was surrounded by that … I learned about the value of something that was made well.
What makes your handbags unique?
I try to use natural materials. A lot of fast-fashion bags have plastic in the middle or cardboard or whatever; I use leather for the different fillers and linings. I try to find and source the finest leathers that I can, but at times I’m also upcycling. I’ll use a piece of a vintage bag and incorporate it and make it into something new.
Most bags are stitched with machines; it makes the process so much faster. I hand-stitch everything. I saddle-stitch every single stitch … Even if people say their bags are handmade, they’re usually using machines for painting the edges, sanding the edges, pricking the stitch holes if they’re hand-stitching. They use machines for all of these different processes. I don’t use machines for them, I’m doing it all by hand … I do it all the old way, the way that they were made before all these machines were invented.
Why is that important to you?
I think that there’s an art to how things were once made. I mean, the world is going so fast in the direction of everything — it’s faster, faster, faster … I approach each bag as a sculptural work of art, because there’s only one of each one.
To learn more about Sydnie Banks, visit her online at https://www.sydniebanks.com/.
Special thanks to Harlea Robinson with @okcvideographer.
