Black Owned Handbag Brands
I'll admit something: as the founder of a black owned handbag brand, it took me embarrassingly long to sit down and write this list. I was so heads-down building Lavāda (sourcing plant-based vegan leather, patenting our interchangeable bag system, etc.) that I never stopped to put together the guide I wish I'd had when I started shopping black owned myself.
So here it is. This is my running list of the black owned handbag brands worth knowing; organized by what you're actually looking for: purse designers representing the culture and building a name for themselves. This includes vegan leather bags that don't sacrifice quality for conscience, designer-level handbags that rival anything on Rodeo Drive, the African American designers behind the labels, and the legendary black fashion designers who made all of this possible in the first place.
A quick note before we dive in: "black" and "African American" aren't always the same thing. Some of the designers below are African American, and some are part of the wider Black diaspora — Ghanaian, Senegalese, Nigerian, Afro-Latina, Afro-European. I've tried to be specific about who's who, because representation deserves accuracy, not just a hashtag.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most well-known black owned handbag brand?
TELFAR is generally considered the most recognizable, largely thanks to its ability to make traction during the Black Lives Matter movement (following the murder of George Floyd), along with their signature Shopping Bag and its brand promise of accessible luxury "for everyone."
Are there black owned vegan leather handbag brands that don't compromise on quality?
Yes. Brands like Lavāda use certified, OEKO-TEX-tested cactus-based vegan leather, while labels like CISE and Voni have built entire collections around premium vegan materials.
Who are some African American handbag designers to know?
Telfar Clemens, Brandon Blackwood, Agnes Baddoo, and Anita Thomas of Lavāda are among the African American designers building recognized handbag brands today.
Why does supporting black owned handbag brands matter?
Black owned fashion brands have historically had less access to capital, retail placement, and press than comparable non-black-owned labels. Every purchase directly supports the growth of businesses working to close that gap.
Black Owned Purse Designers
The purse design world has quietly become one of the most competitive corners of fashion, and black owned purse designers are winning on originality, not just nostalgia for a monogram.
Telfar Clemens
- Telfar Clemens of TELFAR is the name most people think of first, and for good reason — the "Bushwick Birkin" Shopping Bag turned a $150 vegan leather tote into one of the most talked-about accessories of the last decade, built on the brand's promise: "Not for you, for everyone."
Pierre Laborde
- A Harlem, NY based designer, Pierre Laborde because TikTok famous after a vintage fashion influencer (Grace Masingale) sang his praises. She came across his slouchy tote at the Grand Bazaar NYC and immediately told all her followers to help blow up his brand. Laborde is a graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology.
Brandon Blackwood
- Brandon Blackwood built his label from a $80 investment into a multi-million dollar business, best known for statement totes (including his viral "End Systemic Racism" bag) that mix sharp silhouettes with a point of view.
Agnes Baddoo
- Agnes Baddoo designs functional, city-ready bags with an architect's eye for structure, proof that a purse can be fashion-forward and genuinely practical at the same time.
Wilglory Tanjong
- Wilglory Tanjong founded Anima Iris in Dakar, Senegal, where her team hand-crafts sculptural, hexagonal bags rooted in West African design traditions.
Anita Thomas
- Anita Thomas is the founder of Lavāda, a Las Vegas based brand specializing in interchangeable luxury handbags that are made from plant-based leathers (think cactus, apple skin, etc.) with a focus on end-to-end sustainability.
Joy Egbejimba
- Joy Egbejimba is the woman behind Nuciano, a Seattle, WA based handbag brand. Nuciano comes from the Igbo “Nnukachiano” which loosely translates into the freedom to believe and express yourself as a woman.
Aurora James
- Ms. James is the visionary behind Brother Vellies, a New York based powerhouse who also spearheaded the 15 Percent Pledge...the non profit that sought minority representation among major retailers; asking them to devote 15% of their product offerings to Black brands.
Ibrahim Kamara
- At the brand Off-White, Ibrahim Kamara has continued to run with the vision that the late Virgil Abloh started.
Tola Adeagbo
- Florian is the London based brand founded by Tola Adeagbo, which offers hand painted initials on your items.
Black Owned Vegan Leather Bags
This is the category closest to home for me, because it's the exact problem Lavāda was built to solve: how do you make a vegan leather bag that actually holds up, looks luxurious, and doesn't compromise on either?
Our answer was cactus-based vegan leather, certified by OEKO-TEX® Standard 100, and it's free of PVC, phthalates, and the toxic chemicals found in a lot of "pleather." Every Lavāda bag — including the microsuede lining and the natural brass hardware — is produced without animal products. It's also why our signature bags are built around a patented 4-in-1 interchangeable design: one base bag, multiple ways to change its look...so a single sustainable purchase does the work of several.
We're far from the only ones doing this well. Voni has built its entire brand around eco-friendly, vegan leather accessories made with sustainability as the starting point rather than an afterthought. Vavvoune, a Brooklyn-based label, works with vegan materials to create bags with a daring, artful edge (although not all of their bags are vegan).
Black Owned Designer Handbags
"Designer" gets thrown around loosely, but a handful of black owned labels are producing handbags with the craftsmanship, materials, and price point to genuinely compete with legacy European houses.
The lists above are indicative of that. And here are a few more black owned designer bags to know about.
· Ree Projects crafts its bags from Italian leather with a focus on clean lines and women-led production.
· Deseri makes its handcrafted luxury bags in Spain using the same high-grade Italian leather favored by legacy fashion houses.
· Lavāda produces patented and innovative plant-based vegan bags in small quantities which aligns with their mission of greater sustainability.
· Zashadu works with Nigerian artisans and locally sourced materials to produce sustainable luxury pieces with real cultural weight behind them.
· Silver & Riley focuses on durable, beautifully finished calf and cowhide leather bags built for travel.
None of these brands are chasing logos for logos' sake. They're building the kind of quality and reputation that, historically, black owned fashion labels were rarely given the capital or the platform to compete for.
Black Fashion Designers
Handbags don't exist in a vacuum, and it would be irresponsible to talk about black owned handbag brands without naming the black fashion designers who forced the industry's doors open long before "black owned" was a marketing category at all.
Zelda Wynn Valdes opened the first black-owned designer boutique on Broadway in 1948, dressing icons of the era and later designing the original Playboy Bunny costume — a career that predates almost every brand on this list by decades.
Ann Lowe designed Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding gown for her marriage to John F. Kennedy in 1953, yet spent most of her career fighting for recognition the fashion establishment was slow to give her.
Stephen Burrows became the first African American designer to achieve major international stardom, cementing his place at the legendary 1973 "Battle of Versailles" fashion show that put American designers on the global map.
Patrick Kelly became the first American — and first black designer — admitted to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter in Paris, bringing joyful, unapologetic design to French couture in the 1980s.
Dapper Dan built a Harlem atelier that reimagined luxury logos for a clientele the fashion houses ignored, a body of work major houses now openly credit as foundational to modern streetwear and logomania.
Virgil Abloh went on to become artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear line — the first African American to hold that position at a major French luxury house — after building Off-White into one of the defining labels of his generation.
Every black owned handbag brand on this page is, in some way, standing on the ground these designers cleared.
