On a November day in 2020, coming accross the original ZiYA bag, 3 years later, in soapmaking studio 'AURISENSE'.
Back when I first started marbling, it was mostly done the traditional way, by transferring the patterns on paper. But I would always experiment on every possible object and material I could find lying around in my work room.
Then this one time, I tried a print on a small sample of leather I had. I was so impressed by that trial that I showed it to a good friend of mine, Maryz, who likes to be nicknamed as 'ZiYA'. At that time she had freshly graduated with honor from ESMOD Beirut and was my reference to all things concerning tailoring and fashion. Seeing how enthusiastic I was about my latest discovery, she casually asked if I could make her a small leather item with my marbling on it. We didn't exchange much about the final item and what it would actually be. She gave me instead full freedom in terms of shape, design and function.
The first marbled leather sample I made. Not much, but compared to traditionally printing on paper, I was impressed nonetheless.
At that time, I was still working as a full-time interior architect, I loved everything design related and was up for a little challenge, even though I knew nothing about leathercraft. And oddly enough, it was then when I dived into the leather world and discovered a passion I never thought I would have.
And multiple prototypes later, I was able to come up with my first item: a leather agenda holder.
Contemplating the final result: my very first leather clutch bag.
Maryz originally wanted to gift it to her teacher. I figured it an agenda notebook holder would make a nice gift for a teacher. It was a perfect fit for an A5 sized Moleskine agenda. It also had a hidden leather loop on the inside to hold a pencil, that exits back again on the outside as a leather strap closure.
All in all, the result came out so well that Maryz ended up taking the gift for herself instead, and she asked me to make her a couple more to gift them to her friends.
This was in January 2018. Fast forward a couple of months later, I signed my legal documents and MARBLED was officially founded.
The current version of the ZiYA leather clutch bag with visible upgrades.
I named this first product ZiYA as an homage to how all things started. I kept on marbling leather. And ZiYAs had a couple of facelifts and became sought after and one of a kind MARBLED clutch bags that sold within a limited collection for some very lucky owners.
As for Maryz, she's now owner of soapmaking studio 'AURISENSE'.
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