After the madness of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week, I got the opportunity to interview award winning and rising leather bag and accessories designer Victoria Ronco from Divina Denuevo.

Divina Denuevo which literally means “Divine Again” in Spanish is passionate about sustainability, history and luxury, and incorporating those things into the mainstream via fashion. Victoria and her business partner Dave, search high and low for antique and vintage hardware, keys and adornments, in an effort to upcycle something old that was otherwise destined for the landfill, and make it new again.

How did you start Divina Denuevo?
I’ve always been a creative person –and when I first started, I was making fabric bags because I wanted to be carrying something unique. I hated walking down the street and seeing someone carrying the same thing as me, it drove me nuts! When our clothing is an outward expression of our personality, why would we want to spend any of that space looking the same as someone else? I was tired of carrying someone else’s logo on my shoulder.
I came upon my first piece of leather at a fabric shop that was selling scraps – the moment I touched it I fell in love: the texture, the smell, the rawness of it – I knew that I wanted to make a bag with it right there. After a few disasters with my sewing machine, I met Dave (my business partner) who encouraged me to follow my heart and continue on this path. He started working on the ‘business’-side of things, leaving me to play with my leather and keys, but eventually moved into designing as well – he saw how much fun I was having. Now it’s the two of us, bouncing ideas off each other and drawing from our collective experiences and inspiration to create.

I understand that Divina Denuevo uses reclaimed leather and antique hardware. What inspired you to use these materials?
I’ve been passionate about sustainability and eco-consciousness since I was 16 and read a book that opened my eyes to all the ways we could adjust our behaviour slightly to save the planet – I shop local as much as possible, check the carbon footprint of my groceries, try and eliminate the use of plastic in my household, and use my purchasing power to encourage the organic food industry.

My love for all things ‘old-world’ led me to collecting skeleton keys – which are like little time machines to a simpler time, but have no use in our modern world – and I couldn’t stand the thought of these beautiful pieces being thrown away or cast aside out of redundancy. I don’t know why – but to me, leather and metal seemed to go together. The shiny glints of hardware on the rich leather makes a perfect juxtaposition, and the second I held a key against the piece of leather I had bought to play with, I knew that I loved it. From there, I started looking at anything that was old hardware that might end up in a landfill: doorknobs, cabinet handles, keyplates, hinges – It became my mission to find anything that I could save, repurpose, and make beautiful again. As for leather – I think its one of the most fascinating organic materials out there. It was one a living thing, and the marks, texture and idiosyncrasies of it emphasize how unique each and every piece is, just like us humans. We use rough cuts of leather, and embrace ‘imperfections’ such as branding marks and scuffs – they’re a constant reminder of what it is you are carrying around – and that reminder is what I think helps people appreciate that they are carrying something precious – because an animal’s life is precious.

How much work goes into making one large purse? and what is that process like?
Oooh! That’s a tough question – some large bags are finished in my head before they’re even started. Others are a painstaking process of trial and error, prototyping and laying out, sewing and unsewing. The ones that are a breeze usually start with us laying the hide on the floor and looking at the shapes of the sides.. when we see something there (since we often use the raw uncut edges of the hide as the flaps of our purses), we get a rush of inspiration, cut it out and get to work on sewing. Then we spill out our box of treasures and hold different pieces up to the bag, seeing which adornment of hardware looks the best. Other times, we design the bag around a specific piece of hardware – as we often find amazingly cool pieces that inspire us. The more difficult bags usually start with little to no direction, just a rough idea in our heads of what we want to do (like the duffle bag we debuted at Eco Fashion Week – that bag took 3 days to make). We constantly hold the pieces of leather in the places we think they should go, and when we’re happy with the shape, we sew, or rivet into place.
I’m oversimplifying, since I’m not accounting for the treasure hunt- arguably one of the most fun parts – where we go looking for the antique and vintage hardware.

Congratulations with Eco Fashion Week and working with Jeff Garner! What was that like?
In a word, Inspiring. Jeff does some amazing things with fashion, but what’s most inspiring is how he runs his business and what he stands for. His work is truly sustainable, and that’s something we aspire to be as well. We designed the men’s line specifically for his men’s collection, and were truly honoured when he asked if he could buy the main piece ( a large leather duffle) after the show.

Any future plans? Shows?
Oh so much in the pipeline! Jeff has asked us if we’d like to send our collection to him to be part of the rest of his catwalk shows for the season; We won the Excellence Award at eco fashion week in the Accessories category, and along with it a distribution deal in the USA; We have a bunch of exciting things in the pipeline, but I don’t want to jinx them or give away too much. Shows – we’re around at almost all the major holiday markets (got craft, Make It, etc.), and we are really hoping to be in some boutiques by then too – we’ve had almost everything in our business develop organically, so we are hoping that will continue to happen and when its time, some boutiques will work with us to share our collection with their customers.

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SAVE 10% on Divina Denuevo by typing “Upcycle” at Checkout! www.divina-denuevo.com