About Us
Amsterdam — Est. 2018
We make bags.
We change things.
Every bag we make is a choice. A choice to buy less, buy better, and leave the world in better shape than we found it. That is not a tagline. It is the only reason we exist.
Our Story
Born from the belief that fashion can be a force for good.
Montesere was founded in Amsterdam with a single conviction: that a beautiful, well-made bag should not cost the earth, literally or figuratively. We set out to build a brand where craft, conscience, and community are not in tension. Where the people who make our bags thrive. Where the land that provides our materials is protected. And where every customer who carries one of our bags is part of something larger than themselves.
leather sourced
supported globally
empowerment programmes
through our repair programme
01 — The Craft
Made by the best hands in the world.
We work with a small, carefully chosen family of ateliers in Italy, Portugal, and Spain — workshops where leather craft has been passed down across generations. Every bag is cut, stitched, and finished entirely by hand.
We pay above-market rates, visit every partner in person, and publish full supplier transparency reports. The people behind our bags are not a footnote. They are the story.
Meet our suppliers
02 — The Community
Built for women who move the world.
Our customers are doctors, architects, mothers, founders, artists, and activists. They carry our bags to boardrooms and markets, to school gates and gallery openings. They do not define themselves by what they own — but they choose what they own with intention.
We build for them. Not for trends. Not for seasons. For the life they are actually living.
- Timeless silhouettes designed to outlast fashion cycles
- Sizes and structures built around real daily use
- A community of over 80,000 customers across 42 countries
03 — Give Back
Every bag sold funds a future.
Five percent of every Montesere sale goes directly to our Give Back Fund — supporting leather craft training programmes for women in Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco. We do not write cheques to distant charities. We build workshops, fund tools, and pay wages. We have trained over 340 women since 2020, and we are just getting started.
Learn about Give BackWhat We Stand For
Make Less, Make Better
We produce in small batches. Every bag in a run has already been ordered. We have never manufactured speculatively, and we never will. Less waste is not a goal — it is a constraint we impose on ourselves by design.
Radical Transparency
We publish the names of every supplier we work with, the wages they pay, and our annual sustainability progress report. If we fall short of a target, we say so. Accountability is not optional.
Repair Over Replace
We offer lifetime repairs on every bag we have ever made. A worn strap or a tarnished clasp is not a reason to buy a new bag. It is a reason to call us. We will fix it.
04 — The Planet
We do not just reduce harm. We restore.
We are carbon neutral across our full supply chain — not through offsets alone, but through a verified reduction programme with our tannery partners. We are on track for net-positive impact by 2027.
- 100% renewable energy in our Amsterdam studio by 2024
- LWG Gold-rated tanneries across our entire leather supply
- Plastic-free packaging — every box, bag, and tissue is compostable
- 1% of revenue donated to reforestation through our land partner
