Meet the designer: Barbora Flora Tomanova

In 2009, I was a naive outsider who didn't see beyond the glamorous facade of fashion. The classic stereotype of a teenage girl with a cliche dream of becoming the next designer star. I have come a long way since then and found my place within the fashion industry, a place I never thought existed.

Subconsciously, I have always been driven to the creative process of making. The way something is made has always interested me and I wanted to be part of it from start to finish. Long hours and countless sleepless nights spent working on projects during my fashion design studies have given me a solid foundation I continue to build on to this day. It is now more than ever that I realize how important it was to learn and master every aspect of the design process and product development. Because a drawing of a beautiful leather bag, no matter how true-to-life it looks, is still only a drawing of a beautiful leather bag. You can't physically use it so by definition it's useless - unless you have a magic wand that will make it real…

Leatherworking is a multifaceted craft. I've always been a perfectionist with a creative soul so it may come as no surprise that I have found myself in something so challenging and diverse as handcrafting fine leather bags and accessories. Anything crafted by hand requires so much more precision and skill than a machine-made perfection. There are so many things that can go wrong. Leather alone is not uniform to begin with so finding the best spot for every piece of the bag can become very tricky at times - and that's exactly why I fell in love with this beautiful natural material. It's never the same, never boring, and has a fabulous aroma. Just like leathercraft.

Nowadays, not everyone who sets on a creative path gets the chance to learn from a true master of the craft. Not so long ago, if one wanted to learn a specific craft they would seek out a master craftsman who in those days wasn't too hard to find in most of the towns. My great-grandfather was one of these masters. He ran a leather workshop a stone's throw from the place where I make leather bags myself today.

Thanks to a fortunate series of events, the skill and knowledge I couldn't learn from my great-grandfather was passed down onto me by Bottega Veneta's master artisans, highly-skilled and good-hearted people who have dedicated their professional lives to mastering their craft and techniques and who shared their know-how with me with utmost good faith. Knowledge that I would never have learned had I not pursued my studies abroad. It was the most precious gift my life has surprised me with so far and I am so very thankful for it. It is mostly thanks to these wonderful people that I can do on a professional level what I love and what fulfills me and that's something you treasure your whole life.