N° 01 / 184
Modello 01 — Borsa
Structured top-handle · single-artisan construction · 32 hrs
Firenze · 1962
NERI KARRA
Luxury Leather, Made by Hand in Florence Since 1962.
A single artisan. Twenty-eight hours. One finished piece.
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Chapter I — Provenance
Since 1962, one atelier, one artisan, one piece at a time.
In 1962, Tomaso and Elena Karra opened a small workshop on Via dei Macci and signed an agreement with a single generational tannery outside Florence — Conceria Walpier — for the exclusive use of its full-grain, vegetable-tanned hides. Sixty-three years later, that agreement still holds. The hides arrive at our atelier the same way: slowly tanned in oak vats, never chrome-finished, never pigmented, designed to age into a deeper patina with the owner rather than against them.
Every Neri Karra piece is constructed by a single master artisan, beginning to last stitch. The average build consumes twenty-eight hours; a bespoke commission passes one hundred and eighty. When the work is finished, that artisan monograms the lining. We do not produce in volume. The house caps its annual output at two thousand four hundred pieces, a deliberate ceiling set to protect the quality of the work and the hands that do it.
The atelier now employs twenty-two master artisans — seven of whom have been with the house for more than twenty-five years. The third generation, led by creative director Beatrice Karra-Ferrante, continues to sign every cut pattern, examine every finished piece, and answer the telephone personally.
- 1962
- Founded in Florence by Tomaso and Elena Karra
- 22
- Master artisans, seven with 25+ years of tenure
- 28 hrs
- Average construction time per finished piece
- 2,400
- Annual production cap across all categories
- 3rd
- Generation now leading the house
- 1962 →
- Continuous partnership with Conceria Walpier
Chapter II — The Season
This Season, 184 Pieces.
The Spring–Summer catalogue is finished and stamped. Of the two thousand four hundred pieces the house will produce this year, one hundred and eighty-four are now available. Each is monogrammed, numbered, and made once.
N° 62 / 184
Modello 62 — Cartella
Slim briefcase · Pitti Uomo 2023 winner · 36 hrs
N° 14 / 184
Modello 14 — Borsetta
Crossbody · brass fittings · 22 hrs
N° 03 / 184
Modello 03 — Piccolo Cuoio
Wallet & card case · hand-stitched edges · 18 hrs
Chapter III — Bespoke
A different door, opened more slowly.
For collectors who require a piece made only for them, the house maintains a private commission programme separate from the seasonal catalogue. Each commission begins with a hand-drawn pattern by Beatrice Karra-Ferrante, is matched to a single named artisan, and is built over a period of one hundred and eighty hours or more.
The lead time is nine months. The waitlist is, at present, one thousand one hundred and forty-three named clients long. We do not accelerate the queue. The work is paced by hand, by the hide, and by the season.
The application is by introduction or written enquiry only. Forty-one luxury concierge firms — among them John Paul Group and Quintessentially — place clients on the list on their behalf.
- 180+ hrs
- Construction time per commission
- 9 months
- Lead time, pattern to finished piece
- 1,143
- Named clients currently on the waitlist
- 41
- Concierge firms placing clients
Colophon
Selected press & awards
- Vogue Italia "Brands Defining Modern Italian Luxury" March 2024
- Financial Times — How To Spend It Profile on the Karra-Ferrante generation October 2023
- Monocle Issue 178, Florence craft feature 2024
- Pitti Uomo "Best Leather Accessory" — Modello 62 briefcase 2023
The house also holds the Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata al Vegetale Master Tanner certification, one of fourteen ateliers worldwide.
Two doors, at the end of the page
Visit the Atelier, or enter the collection.
Via dei Macci 47r, Firenze — by appointment, Tuesday through Saturday, ten until six.