My name is Pieter Keyser and our small company is based in Somerset West, Western Cape Province, South Africa. I have built luxury residential houses for the last 10 years, but got to a stage where I needed to find my passion in life again. I then bought a handbag manufacturing business 12 months ago for my lovely wife as a sideline. I soon realized manufacturing and developing bags as a real passion and inspiration. After being thrown into the deep end with no real background and customers to speak of, I soon realized that this business is not for the faint of heart. We have however stuck with it, and I have subsequently left the building trade and is now fulltime involved in the manufacturing of handbags. We started out by focusing on the clients and bags that has been manufactured in the past, but did and still do not like many of them. The idea then came to us to design our own range and to have something unique to us. Something that shows our taste and our style. Therefore currently we are at the stage where we still manufacture and supply the bags that we bought the business with, but also developing new bags to form the new foundation of our company called BEWILDE.

I work only with genuine leather and exotic gameskin which I source from local registered suppliers and tanneries. The knobbed bags are the ones that lays very close to my heart, for the idea, technique and manufacturing thereof is completely my own. Embossing leather is not new and I am sure someone has probably done what I have done somewhere before me. How I do it however, is a technique that I have developed entirely by myself. This makes it extra special for me and the process takes considerable time and effort. We target women in the ages from 25 to 65 for I believe our range, old and new, offers something for everybody. We are moving however towards the dynamic woman that is on the move and need a versatile bag that is functional and will look equally good with a pair of jeans as well as with an evening dress. The bags should be able to go with every occasion and season, therefore rendering it classical and timeless.

I started the line with the idea to provide the modern woman a bag that is truly versatile while at the same time being beautiful, functional and timeless. I believe a bag should be worn and definitely not carried. A bag must complement the natural beauty of a woman for all women are beautiful. I want people to know that each bag has been made entirely by hand with love, passion and dedication to the product. The knobbed range's leather is embossed entirely by myself by hand, rendering each piece completely unique. No two bags are ever the same.

I also manufacture handbags under license for a few independent designer brands, some of which are listed on this site. When designers come to you with just a vague sketch with no dimensions, you have to really get into their heads to understand their idea of what it must eventually look like. This could take days with long sessions and quite a few samples down the line to refine the product to its end result.

The greatest feeling of satisfaction I had thus far was when a new brand for an independent designer was launched and people saw the bags for the first time and raved about the beauty and craftsmanship. Also seeing some of the bags in magazines photographed professionally with a good article about the designer, you realize that it was a team effort which my team played a crucial role in. It makes you proud to think back of the long hours that went into it and realize it was all worth it. Creating something out of nothing, and having people like what you do, is probably the greatest feeling of satisfaction one can get.