The Journey of Quality Craftmanship.

With regards to pristine and unrivaled wallets, we decided to partner with Mathew Neilson and go with his collection „MATBLAC“ and Mat’s ongoing obsession with design perfection. For longer than he’s willing to admit, Mat’s been fascinated with crafting, stitching and designing leather goods. As a boy tirelessly tinkering on his family’s sewing machine, Mat scrutinized every stitch, finessed all functionality and sketched thousands of different designs.

Over seventeen years each product became a little better, a little smoother and better perfected. And while streamlining these designs has been his life’s work, the process has stayed much the same. Japanese scissors and blades have replaced kitchen cutters, and German machinery has been a welcome update of the Neilson family machine.

And his workspace? Now a beautiful, plant-filled studio at the foot of Table Mountain. But as for the rest, every single design is still hand sketched, and every piece of leather still selected, cut and crafted under his watchful eye. And sure, this takes time. It’s not the easiest way or the most economic, but it’s the right way and we from African Rainbow Craft (ARC) therefore want to support Mat and his skilled artisans – as it’s our story to support artisans who are upskilling themselves in a sustainable way – it’s part of our ethos.