It’s Day 2 of my overseas manufacturing trip and I've run into the same problem which I always seem to meet: I’ve designed an impossibly expensive bag. In the past, I managed to do this by creating scalloped details that required all sorts of intricate cutting and stitching techniques. This time, I did it by designing a bag that called for exceptionally expensive materials- namely leather.

Truly fantastic leather is hard to source. The greatest tanneries are few and far between and despite what you might think, they aren’t all in Italy. There are wonderful tanneries in India, Vietnam, China and Taiwan, you just have to find them.

Today, we discovered a wonderful tannery that makes supple and luxurious leather, but it comes at a serious price, both in dollars and time.

Frustrated by the obstacles, Simon (my account manager) suggested we look at some ‘vegan leather’ alternatives (ie pleather). “They are so good now, you can barely tell the difference,” he assured me. All right, I thought, let’s take a look at this stuff. To my surprise, he was right, there are some great leather alternatives out there, and, from five feet away, it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. The hand feel of vegan leather, however, is just different. It's much lighter and has the slightest hint of rubber. It’s sort of like sugar vs. nutrasweet: the overall effect is the similar, but the real thing doesn’t have a lingering aftertaste of the artificial.

It has taken me a long time to track done such an exceptional tannery and despite a few roadblocks, I'm certainly not going to let this one pass by. It's true, when it comes to leather, there is no substitue for the real thing.