The story behind the Henry Cuir collection is somewhat of an epic. Swiss-born Henri Beguelin first learned the art of leather working from a saddle-maker in the petit town of Locarno, overlooking Italian and Lake Maggiore. As he grew older, 

Beguelin took his craft to the Isola d'Elba, joining in with a 1970s hippie artist crowd that joined together to produce some of his first bags, sandals, and other accessories. In 1971, he opened his first shop in the area, eventually adding a location in Milan's fashion district just a few years later.

By the ’80s, Beguelin was attracting buyers as far as Barney's New York, but a falling out with his business partner led him to leave his company and divest his own name in 1998—all because his partner wanted to move towards a more industrialized manufacturing process, while Beguelin insisted on the handmade.

Not one to fall off the horse without getting back up, the master artisan launched his personal line with stores in Tokyo and Milan a year later. To this day, each Henry Cuir piece is made by craftsman in Italy, where they hand-select each piece of leather and move it through the process of traditional tanning and dyeing methods. All of the brands shoes and bags are meticulously assembled, each bag taking two to eight hours to make. Each of the items is given a name, a backstory, and a certain breath of life that makes them beautifully unique. A union between past and present.