The Golden Ratio of Goods

Diana Wu (left) and Wesley Nunn (right) of 1.61 soft goods.

Handcrafted leather goods are trending like modern pottery. Leather in tandem with metal, wood, and paper mixes like chocolate and peanut butter. The leather gives an organic sensation and feel that changes over time, echoing tradition with modernity.

Nestled in LA, 1.61 Soft Goods are among the best in style and design. Wesley Nunn and Diana Wu’s creations are the perfect mix of objects having both the strong feel of leather with the perfect blend of lightness that most leather crafters can’t find. Unlike many who pride themselves on the thickest and brawniest of tanned hide which often pollinates with the ferociousness of Harleys, 1.61 has an elegance with a slight tinge of military design, and cycling.

Their studio exemplifies their lifestyle. It’s a loft that they co-inhabit, but has both a creative and designer feel that’s not afraid to break the current minimalist trend. True to their company name, their decor mixes mid-century and contemporary themes and it speaks volumes about their tastes. It lends itself to their goods.

Wesley and Diana will soon be living in Tokyo. They’ll be up and running shortly.

Interview Excerpts

GR: Tell me your names, who you guys are, and what you guys do.

W: I'm Wesley and we just have our own business, 1.61 and we make leather goods, soft goods, and bags.

D: Yup, and I am Diana and do the same thing as him. We're a small company, just two of us, so we kind of share everything. We don't have tasks specific to each other.

W: Yeah. So, we both do everything in the company.

GR: And you guys started, is it like five years ago, six years ago, something like that?

D: Yeah. 2012. Almost. Oh yeah, in April it will be five years.

GR: How did you guys get started? Was there a first product that you guys were working on or did you guys meet outside of that?

W: I started actually in my apartment when I lived downtown. It was a student product actually. I made a modular messenger bag. It had a grid system where you could configure different bags inside the bag to fit what you need. I did a lot of commuting on bicycle, so I just designed some small bags for commuting. That was my first product. It kind of just grew from there. Then it went fully, larger scale and then some other stuff. She was actually in school when I started and then she based a lot of projects off of designing decks.

GR: Wait, so you made your bag, it was just for yourself, right?

W: Yeah.

D: Yeah. So, we felt like there was no product that looks modern, yet functional. That's why we wanted to start making our own leather goods, but it was just mainly for us. It wasn't for profit or anything.

GR: How about yourself?

D: Yeah, so I helped him with that project and then after that he started making more bags. I think the first actual product was that little hip pouch for commuting. The second one was that backpack that we have. We helped with each other because we have design backgrounds. Critiquing and what not. Not because we were really into leather, but we started looking to leather because of its functionality and how it ages and stuff. From there, I kind of got into leather crafts more than sewn goods. I think, we made iPhone cases and stuff first. Because it was just something that was familiar to us. I started from iPhone cases just for myself to enjoy.

GR: What is it about leather? Is it the history or is it just the material? What is it about the leather that you like so much?

D: I like leather because it's really easy to get into at first because you don't have to have heavy tooling. It's not that heavy and it's not that hard to cut and stuff, but also it is durable enough to make a lot of parts. Also, we like how it ages. We don't like plastic material that much. There's so many parts that apply well with plastic, but leather, we just love how it ages because something we make is something you use every day.

W: And the versatility too because you can use it in a lot of different ways. You could add artwork to it if you wanted to or you could mold it to different shapes, like bowls, and then you can sew it or just glue it together. It's just a lot of versatility with what you can do.

GR: There's a recent upsurge on leather? It seems like there's a little movement. I see it around and I'm wondering why around there?

W: I think it's just people want to share what they can do. The accessibility of leather. It's really easy to get leather. It's really cheap to get all of the basic tools that you need to make a basic wallet or whatever. It's really easy to share what you can do and craft with leather. It looks really nice.

D: I think it was all timing. Everything just started to collide. The fact that there's Etsy and the fact that there's online resources that you can Google, and you can YouTube, and you can find out how to do things very easily nowadays, and people start to put all these things together and they're like, "Oh, I can make these by myself." I feel like that's the beginning of it.

GR: And also, I guess there's way more bikes there. You've gone there so many times, right? Are you seeing people using kind of the bags that you put on your bikes and things like that there?

W: Not really. I'd say more messenger or even people carrying tote bags when they ride their bike or backpack.

D: Yeah and people are not big on bike racks. Here, people like to put bags on the bikes. But there are so many bikes there and sometimes they get stolen. People don't put stuff on the bikes. I think it's still someone carrying it and still gets on the bike.

GR: Are you going to make a Japanese man purse? Or is your stuff usually unisex, right?

W: Yeah. With our tote bags, we try to make them unisex so that the portion doesn't feel too feminine. When a guy is carrying it, it doesn't look weird.