u/Gold_Strength_8888

About five years ago I bought two leather bags from an independent leather artist because I thought they were beautiful and different from anything I already owned.

In hindsight… that may have been a tactical error. 😂

A few months later I bought another one.

Then another.

At some point I had to admit I wasn’t just buying handbags anymore… I was apparently collecting this woman’s work.

The funny part is that I was already a handbag collector before I found her. I owned plenty of luxury bags and genuinely enjoyed them. But somewhere along the way I realized I kept reaching for these instead.

Apparently I have a type. 😄

The backpack is my oldest one. It’s been absolutely everywhere with me. Airports, museums, trains, hiking, grocery stores… it’s basically my emotional support backpack at this point.

What keeps me coming back isn’t even that they’re pretty (although I obviously think they are). They’re just… easy. They’re light, they’re comfortable, the pockets don’t make me fight for my keys every single time, and somehow they seem to work with almost everything I wear.

I still don’t understand why they’re fairly light, honestly. They aren’t even lined. I thought I’d hate that. Turns out I don’t care.

This year I bought one of her slings for my dad’s birthday.

Dad immediately announced it was obviously a fanny pack.

Then he decided it was too big.

Then he started talking about punching another hole in the strap.

“DAD… NO. STOP. THAT’S NOT HOW YOU WEAR IT.” 😂

Fast forward a week and he was wearing it everywhere.

Meanwhile my mom had already announced she planned to borrow it. 😁

The maker is Yana, and her brand is Devinet, in Cherkasy, Ukraine. Every bag is her own design and she hand-stitches every single one herself. Somewhere along the way we became friends because I just… kept buying her bags. 😅

Full disclosure: I paid for every one of them, and she has absolutely no idea I’m posting this.

I’m curious… Has anyone else here accidentally fallen down the rabbit hole with one small maker? Not necessarily luxury or famous, just someone whose work somehow clicked with you to the point where you stopped looking elsewhere?

Part of me almost doesn’t want anyone else discovering Yana because I’d rather not compete for future bags. 😂 But really… craftsmanship like this deserves to be appreciated.

About five years ago I bought two leather bags from a leather artist in Cherkasy, Ukraine. I thought they looked interesting.

That was apparently a mistake.

Because then I bought another one. And another one. 😄

The backpack in these photos is the oldest one I own. It’s been with me all over the place: New York, Switzerland, Venice, Scandinavia, airports, museums, everyday grocery runs…it pretty much became my default travel companion. It has held up ridiculously well.

The funny thing is that I wasn’t documenting the bags. I was documenting my trips. Then I scrolled through my photos one day and realized, “Wait… it’s the same bags over and over again.”

I used to collect luxury handbags. I’m actually selling most of them now because I rarely reach for them anymore.

What surprised me most isn’t even how they’ve aged. It’s that they’re just… nice to use.

The pockets are actually easy to get your hand into. (It sounds silly until you’ve owned bags that make you wrestle for your keys every single day.) They’re lightweight, even though they have lots of zippers and hardware, and I honestly have no idea how she manages that. They don’t have a lining, which I thought I’d miss. Turns out I don’t.

This year I bought one of the slings for my dad’s birthday.

Dad immediately decided it was a fanny pack.

Then he decided it was too big.

Then he decided he needed to punch another hole in the strap.

I may or may not have yelled, “DAD, STOP. THAT IS NOT HOW YOU WEAR IT.” 😂

Meanwhile my mom looked at it and said, “Oh good, I’ll borrow it.”

Once Dad actually started wearing it cross-body the way it was intended, he became a fan too.

The maker is Yana, and her brand is Devinet. Everything I’ve bought has been designed and hand-stitched by her. We actually became friends over the years because I kept buying her work.

I know five years isn’t exactly “for life” yet. Maybe in another fifteen years I’ll come back and update this post.

But if a bag survives years of travel, daily use, me stuffing way too much into it, and still makes me instinctively reach for it instead of everything else in the closet… I think it’s off to a pretty good start.