Persian heritage · London craft

Hand-painted leather. By one hand. From one studio.

Italian-tanned hide, thirty hours per piece, all of it made at the Persa London atelier in N1. Bags, bracelets, accessories — each one carries the same maker through every stage.

Shop the studio About the work

Hours per piece

Each item is hand-painted at the bench. No print, no factory, no shortcut. Thirty hours under the brush from start to finish.

Pair of hands

One maker — Dr. Zahra McGuiness — does every stage. From cutting the leather to the final layer of paint.

Generations of leather

The hide comes from a single Italian tannery, three generations of the same family. The atelier translates it into something its origin couldn't predict.

Hand-painting a Persian flower motif onto burgundy leather at the bench

The atelier. London N1.

Persa London is the studio of Dr. Zahra McGuiness — a PhD researcher who paints leather by hand. The work is unhurried on purpose. Each piece spends thirty hours under the brush. Each stroke is a decision. Nothing repeats exactly.

What leaves the atelier is hand-painted from Italian tannery hide — three generations of the same family supply the leather. The painting is from a different lineage entirely.

Each piece carries one maker through every stage. That is the only thing on offer.

In the wild

The collection, worn.

Hand-painted crossbody worn through a sunlit doorway — Crossbody · Persian Rose

Three hand-painted leather bracelets resting on a café table — Bracelets · Hand-painted

Hand-painted bucket bag in a Bloomsbury London street at golden hour — Bucket · Studio Edition

Editorial · Persa London · 2026