Bespoke Bag Terminology: Every Term a Buyer Needs to Know

It means the piece is developed from your brief, with a pattern cut for the programme, materials selected by you and a sample submitted for written approval before bulk production. It does not mean a stock bag with a logo added. That is customisation or private label work, which is legitimate but involves no development and should be priced differently.

A sketch communicates what the bag looks like; a tech pack states what it is made of and how it is assembled. A complete tech pack includes dimensions with tolerances, material specification with substance and finish, hardware specification with plating standard, lining, stitch density, edge finish, branding placement and packing method. Most programmes need both documents.

No. Genuine leather is a trade term meaning the material contains leather fibre, and it spans a wide quality range including heavily corrected and bonded products. The terms that carry real information are cut — full-grain, top-grain or corrected — together with substance, tannage and finish. Specify those and the material can be verified on arrival.

Full-grain is the top layer of the hide with its natural grain intact and uncorrected, which is why it develops patina and is the most durable cut. Top-grain has been lightly sanded or corrected to remove surface imperfections, giving a more uniform appearance at slightly lower durability. Both are legitimate choices depending on the look required.

MOQ is the minimum order quantity, standard at five hundred pieces. It is counted per style and per colourway because each colourway requires its own material purchase, dye lot and line setup. Three colourways of one style therefore means three minimums unless the programme agreement explicitly pools them, which is worth negotiating at brief stage.

A sample made on the production line using production materials, tooling and operators, rather than in the sampling room. It is the last checkpoint before bulk and is the most reliable predictor of what the shipment will look like. For complex programmes, approving a pre-production sample is worth the additional time it adds to the schedule.

AQL is the acceptable quality limit: the number of minor and major defects a shipment may contain before it fails inspection. AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1, single sampling, general level II is the common standard for leather goods. It permits a defined number of minor defects, so a buyer wanting zero defects must state that separately and expect it to affect cost.

Edge paint is a liquid coating applied in several thin coats, sanded between, producing a smooth sealed edge. Burnishing finishes a raw edge with heat, wax and friction, giving a slightly darker, more natural edge typical of vegetable-tanned work. Painted edges can be refinished; burnished edges are maintained rather than replaced.

Skiving is thinning leather at an edge or fold so that overlapping layers do not create bulk. It matters because unskived seams produce thick, uncomfortable joins and visible ridges under the surface. Proper skiving is one of the clearest indicators of skilled construction and is largely invisible in a photograph, which is why it should be checked on a physical sample.

Substance is thickness, usually stated in millimetres. It should be matched to the silhouette: lighter substances around 1.2 to 1.4 millimetres for soft, slouchy shapes, and heavier around 1.8 to 2.2 millimetres for structured pieces. Specifying substance prevents the common problem of a bag that looks right in photographs but collapses or stands incorrectly in person.

They are Incoterms defining where cost and risk transfer. FOB means risk passes when goods are loaded at the named port, and is the standard quoting basis for bag programmes. CIF adds carriage and insurance to the destination port. DDP delivers duty paid to the buyer door. The choice determines who bears loss in transit and who handles customs.

A swatch card is the set of physical material and hardware samples approved for a programme. It is the reference against which production is checked, and it is what makes a reorder possible years later when dye lots have moved. Approving colour from a screen rather than a physical swatch is one of the most frequent causes of rejection on arrival.

It means the plating contains no nickel, which matters because nickel is a common contact allergen and is restricted in some markets. Where a programme sells into a market with nickel restrictions, or where recipients have known sensitivities, specify nickel-free plating in the tech pack and confirm it on a physical hardware sample before bulk production begins.

Any seam that carries the weight of the contents, such as handle attachment, strap joins and base seams. These should be stitched rather than adhesive-bonded, and usually reinforced as well. Specifying how load-bearing seams are constructed is one of the most effective things a buyer can do to determine how long a bag lasts.

A reduced quantity production run used to validate demand, presentation and quality before committing to a full minimum order quantity. It uses the same development process as a full programme, so the pattern and specification remain available for scale-up. The trade-off is unit cost, since fixed costs such as tooling and sampling are spread across fewer pieces.

A prototype is the first physical build of an original design, made to test whether the idea works in three dimensions. A counter sample is made to match a reference supplied by the buyer, usually to test whether a maker can reproduce an existing specification. Both precede the pre-production sample, which is made on the production line itself.