‘Slow fashion’ endures

WEARABLE ART: From left, Lindy McDonough, creative director, and Ellen McNulty-Brown, CEO, for Providence-based Lotuff Leather. The company designs and manufactures high-quality leather goods. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
WEARABLE ART: From left, Lindy McDonough, creative director, and Ellen McNulty-Brown, CEO, for Providence-based Lotuff Leather. The company designs and manufactures high-quality leather goods. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

The idea that clients are looking for pieces to last a lifetime drives the design behind the leather wallets, bags, briefcases and general accessories handcrafted by Lotuff Leather.

“Our clients are looking for slow fashion, not fast fashion,” said Ellen McNulty-Brown, CEO of Lotuff Leather, of the ability for the company’s designs to transcend multiple fashion seasons.

Begun in 2012 in Norwalk, Conn., by Joe Lotuff, principal owner and chairman of the board, McNulty-Brown said the goal was to design and manufacture high-quality leather goods while providing a living wage for employees.

In the past two years, Lotuff Leather transitioned from a focus on wholesalers to 70 percent direct-to-consumer sales.

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Lotuff Leather found their niche in the market when they saw consumers looking for alternatives to high-prestige brands like Louis Vuitton and Hermes, explained McNulty-Brown.

When handcrafted-goods companies grow, the quality of their products often wanes, said Lindy McDonough, Lotuff Leather’s creative director.

This year marks the third anniversary of Lotuff Leather’s Providence headquarters, but prospects are only looking up, she said. “By building in-house, the quality just gets better … and it’s because we’re training people longer … versus cutting corners to make the product faster,” she added.

The Providence location, which includes manufacturing and a showroom, allowed the company to control the quality of the goods being sold under the Lotuff Leather brand, perfect the designs and build a lasting, interested customer base, said McDonough. The company still maintains a Connecticut manufacturing operation.

“It’s not just a five-year fashion project, it’s a 100-year project, laying down a good foundation in Rhode Island,” she said.

McNulty-Brown said the company touts itself as a studio, not a factory, and that’s what draws in artists.

“We’re in Rhode Island because this is where the talent pool is,” she said.

And that talent is rewarded by Lotuff Leather, which covers 100 percent of employees’ dental, health and life insurance premiums for those who work more than 32 hours per week.

“We give them a living wage and all the benefits to do their own thing. …You can still live as a studio artist in Providence and we need to support that,” said McDonough.

Since moving to the Ocean State in 2013, the company has grown from three employees to 18.

On average, it takes three weeks for each piece to be made, which is one of the reasons why Lotuff Leather goods sell at the higher end, with prices that include a $135 small-coin purse and $1,960 for a men’s leather briefcase.

The quality of materials and functionality of design is what McDonough said she hopes, “sings through, versus a brand or because so and so carried it.” •

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