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WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT
ABOUT
Zarina Rouge creates sustainable and high-quality handbags for the modern, creative woman. Our goal is to elevate your daily wardrobe with our flirty yet practical bags. To every silhouette we bring a sense of ease and elegance. Furthermore, we believe colour is key. It is what makes your outfit stand out. Which is why we offer a wide range of colours. We want to highlight all your neutrals with a pop of colour.
Since the advent of digital media, it has become increasingly clear that fashion is disconnected from traditional seasons. It’s becoming a trend-less cycle. Which is what we aim at. Our goal is to bring you a year-round product, a timeless and gender-fluid handbag of the highest quality. Season-less fashion – as its name suggests – is fashion that does not conform to typical seasonal trends or schedules. We produce items with the intention of giving them a longer life. This way the bags can be both sold and worn throughout the year. It is no secret that today’s fashion pace is worth raising eyebrows. This is why we believe going season-less could save money, save fashion, and also kind of save the world.
We design with real people in mind and sustainability is at the core of everything we do. This goes from the choice of production methods, raw materials and working conditions, to our environmental footprint. We start with small quantities of each product, and only make more if we know you want it, based on direct data and feedback. This keeps our production less wasteful, and exclusive. We like making you feel special.
Quality is an investment in the future. We believe that the pieces we buy today should become the vintage of tomorrow. To achieve this ideal, we create timeless pieces that will outlive fleeting trends and suit every season; creations made from eco-friendly and innovative materials by people we trust.
SUSTAINABILITY
We take great importance in sustainability. We follow the European standards for raw material and take great care in choosing reliable suppliers. In fact, we only work with LWG (Leather Working Group) certified tanneries. This means that they have been given sustainability ratings in all aspects of their leather production, from traceability to chemical use, from worker safety to waste.
Our goods are always made with an eye for the environment, from the point of sourcing to the packaging. What else makes a product environmentally friendly is durability and longevity. In other words quality is of utmost importance. The longer you wear your bag the better for the environment - AND that is exactly how you can contribute, not by buying vegan leather of poor quality.
Quality and durability of leather products are important factors when considering product life. For a long-lasting item will help those who are environmentally conscious to reduce the number of purchases. This way the product can be re-used for years and perhaps even get passed on to the next generation.
We prioritise low waste. This means all materials sourced are by-products. This signifies that animals are reared by the agricultural sector for the food sector, and the leather industry exists to process a by-product of the meat industry. Besides that, we also aspire to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible. Our sourcing and production takes place in Italy. All goods travel by road until they reach our warehouse in Belgium.
We regularly visit our factory in Italy to guarantee ethics and sustainability. We are a slow fashion brand that is dedicated to approach fashion in an ethical and transparent way that considers both people and the planet. This means when we sell out an item it might take a while before we restock.
THE DESIGNER
The story of Zarina Rouge began with a love for fashion, or you might even call it an obsession. As an eight-year-old she would cut pieces of fabric and sew them into little outfits for her Barbies. It was not playing with them that intrigued her but the clothes these tiny women wore. Sewing imperfect pieces together by hand is what kept her busy. Besides sewing, making jewellery was what brought her joy. She favoured creating huge rings out of beads and bling necklaces over toys.
After studying translation in Ghent, she felt something was missing. While moving back to her home town Koksijde, she signed in for a sewing class and leather craft course. One of her models which quickly caught attention was Suri. Asymmetrically built, Suri is a mark of our label's appreciation for architectural forms and distinguished design elements. And from one thing came another. It takes up to 20 hours to make a bag which became a difficult combination with her full-time job. And so, as the level of demand started increasing, she started looking for a way to meet that demand without quitting her job. After screening different factories, she finally found a match in Firenze, Italy. Our factory, with skills and crafts that go back many generations, collaborates with fashion’s most popular luxury brands. And that is something we are extremely proud of.
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
So how does it all work, you ask?
First she starts drawing, erasing and drawing and erasing... I bet you know how that goes. In some cases her design results from a composition of an entire scrapbook of ideas. As soon as she has found her final design, she moves on to drawing the pattern. The latter can really take up a lot of time, as you need to measure everything carefully. All dimensions must be very accurate.
After the pattern is wrapped and ready, she moves on to cutting the leather pieces that soon will form the bag she had in mind. When the bag is finished she shows it to her colleagues at the factory. Together they start looking for a suitable type of leather, which is always of top quality Italian leather.
They are finally approaching the end of this incredible collaboration. The craftsmen fine-tune her prototype and there it is. If she is satisfied with the final outcome they proceed to the production part.
All bags are produced in limited numbers. There is nothing more rewarding than quality over quantity. The last thing we need now is another fast-fashion brand, right?
Click through to shop our belgian designs that are easy to wear and for your everyday wardrobe.
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