PHOTOGRAPHY: TIMO WIRSCHING WRITER: NILS BINNBERG‘The past five years have been like an apprenticeship,’
says Tina Lutz, standing in the sun-filled production
hall of a small leather goods factory in the industrial
area of Wuppertal, near Düsseldorf in north-western
Germany. ‘My background is in tailoring and knitwear,
but I was kind of ready to challenge myself.’
After more than 30 years in the fashion business –
with stints at Issey Miyake and Calvin Klein on her
resumé, and having operated her own fashion label,
Lutz Patmos, for 11 years – the German designer
launched the accessories label Lutz Morris in 2017 as
a small collection of adjustable leather bags in variousDESIGNER TINA LUTZ AT THE
WUPPERTAL FACTORY WHERE
HER LUTZ MORRIS BAGS ARE
MADE BY ARTISANS USING A
45-STEP PROCESS. LUTZ WEARS
‘MALLOY’ BAG IN CHARCOAL
AND COGNAC CROCO ADLER
INTARSIA, WITH CUSTOM
GOLD-PLATED CHAIN, £948.
ON WORKBENCH, ‘NORMAN’
BAG IN JADE CROCO, £505colours, mounted on thin frames. The original bag
design was inspired by a framed leather case Lutz’s
husband gave her for Christmas (the name Lutz Morris
combines their surnames) – think vintage cigarette
case from the 1960s. ‘It was so cool and I thought,
I should make bags like this,’ she explains.
Since then, Lutz Morris has grown considerably:
within a month of its debut, there were waiting lists
at retailers for new shipments and, by the following
spring, her bags had been picked up by concept stores
and blue-chip department stores, such as HarveyNichols and Saks Fifth Avenue. ‘The brand’s regional (^) »
Shoulder charge
The bags of German designer Tina Lutz put local artisans in the frame
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Design