Story of Mianqa

Founded by Zeynep Akman in 2017, “Mianqa” is a contemporary bags brand offering premium quality sustainable bags with modern timeless designs.

Zeynep’s family business, founded in 1947, is a factory in Istanbul, making leather bags of world’s renowned luxury fashion houses. Despite being a new born brand, Mianqa is carrying in its genes over seven decades of leather crafting experience.

THE MIANQA TEAM

We are the former designers, developers and leather crafters of luxury fashion houses.  As the creators of some of the "It Bag"s, we have now designed a unique signature hand weaving pattern.

We made sure that the weaving design is both stylish, fashionable, durable and also minimizing the amount of leather wasted after cutting, virtually to nothing. We patented it and called it “Anqa” weave.

We pride ourselves in slowfashion, where we take the time to create one-of-a-kind bags, each slowly handcrafted with the best quality leather.

 

SUSTAINABLE FASHION, SUSTAINABLE LUXURY

#NOWASTE

“Why there are so much leather, in perfect condition, wasted around?” “How can we turn them into beautiful bags, in a fashionable, stylish way?

As designers and developers of leather bags for luxury fashion houses for years, this was the question in our minds as we were starting out Mianqa.

We worked tirelessly for months on new ways of combining pieces together. In the end, we came up with the perfect design. A hexagon weave.

Our new pattern, a small piece of magical triangle, allowed us to reuse the leather cut-offs that would be otherwise waste. The resulting work was a strong, durable and beautiful panel.

This was our signature. We patented it and called it “Anqa”.

Our main goal is to complete the cutting process with virtually zero leather waste. We can even reuse the perfect quality leather, that are put aside as waste from different production lots, and create beautiful multicolor handwoven panels with them.

#EMPOWERINGWOMEN

The invention of Anqa weave, created a totally new hand-weaving technique with it.  Just like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. 

This allowed us to empower women. FSWW, (Foundation For The Support For The Women’s Work) is an NGO in Istanbul aiming to increase economic well-being of low income women. We collaborated with FSWW for the hand-weaving work. We are sending the small cutted pieces to the FSWW center.   From there, they are distributed to small foundation houses, where members of the FSWW gather together to hand weave the Mianqa bag panels.

 

#SLOWFASHION 

Each Mianqa bag is handmade, by our leather artisans, who have more than 20 years of leather crafting experience.  They are handmade delicately, with utmost attention to the smallest detail.

We believe in slow fashion. We believe in fewer but better things. Better made. In good conditions.

Slowly. Carefully.

 

#UNIQUENESS

No two Mianqa bags are alike.  Each Mianqa bag, is hand-woven one by one. Crafted one by one. Each piece of leather is different from one another. This is our stamp of incomparability. Our signature of uniqueness.

Just like you.

 

MIANQA'S SUSTAINABLE COLLECTIONS

Mianqa’s debut collection was inspired by modern, structured iconic silhouettes. Combining simplicity with our signature Anqa weave, the debut collection offered modern luxury in clean-cut and timeless silhouettes.

Aiming to diversify and increase the use of eco-friendly materials, we are adding new sustainable materials to the new designs. We started to line our bags with RPET, (recycled polyester from pet bottles) instead of regular fabrics. In March 2021, we are launching our new collection made from real vegan leather, namely "cactus leather".

SUSTAINABLE & FASHIONABLE

Can sustainable fashion be beautiful?

We believe in luxury, we believe in beauty, we believe in desirability. There is a general perception when it comes to sustainable fashion that you’re sacrificing all of those things, in order to be more responsible. And the product it self, the design, would be compromised. 

We completely challenge that. We believe that we can make as beautiful, fashionable, desirable bags, but in a sustainable way.