The House
Founded in Cape Town. Made from documented African game hides.
House of MBALI is a luxury house specialising in personalised handbags, luggage and exceptional leather goods, made to order in Cape Town, South Africa.
Founding
Cape Town, 2017
MBALI began with one refusal: not to buy leather without knowing where it came from. The house was founded in Cape Town in 2017 to make a small number of pieces a year from hides whose origin could be named, dated and evidenced — and to write that origin down before a single panel was cut.
What we make
Nine silhouettes, and nothing improvised
Nine permanent silhouettes in the Signature range, and the Isiba small leather goods beside them. Each silhouette is matched to one hide chosen for its grain and weight. Anything outside those nine is taken as a private commission, in strictly limited numbers each season.
How we work
One master artisan. Full responsibility.
One lead artisan remains responsible for a piece from the first assessment of the hide to the final inspection — mapping and cutting the panels, shaping the body, saddle-stitching the principal seams, building and burnishing the edges and setting the hardware. We work with a select circle of specialist tanneries, choosing the tannery and treatment for each hide; where appropriate, hides are vegetable-tanned with bark-derived tannins, including African acacia and mimosa/wattle extracts.
What we hold ourselves to
The origin is the signature
Every hide enters the MBALI Origin Register with its source region, date and lawful-source reference. Every finished piece carries a serial struck on the reverse of its seal, linked to that record. If we cannot evidence a claim, we do not publish it.