Trakatan

Via Mantova, 9, Torino (Torino)

Trakatan

Data/ora chiusura iscrizioni: venerdì 24 ottobre 2025 16:00:00

Laboratorio / Atelier

The smell of leather and its colors; the cardboard templates numbered and hung on the wall; the hands carving with confident strokes, and in the background the rhythm of the sewing machine. Light fills the workshop where the bags are born that, from a revitalized neighborhood in Turin, have gone on to conquer Japan, Korea, and Europe. And Italy, through the windows of those shops where everything has something unusual, where the image is research and the result is an elegance that is never predictable.

Trakatan is the name of this treasure chest of Made in Italy. It means nothing, and therefore, in the same way, it can mean everything: it is the sound of energy. For Carlotta and Andrea, who created it and fill it every day with ancient craftsmanship and new ideas, it is a place of rebirth, a second life. The desire to change, a leathercraft course in Tuscany, and the courage to try. Their bags today travel the world on the shoulders of those—women or men—who choose them; and they carry within them, as well, a story of love and shared passion.

Trakatan

Via Mantova, 9, Torino (Torino)

Andrea was working in Spain for a communication company, while Carlotta was in advertising. The turning point came in 2012, when they decided to take over a historic workshop specializing in leatherwork, active since 1942 in Borgo Rossini, Turin. At the time, the neighborhood was on the outskirts, but today it is a hub of artisan workshops, small cafés, and students bringing energy and curiosity.

Andrea and Carlotta absorbed the knowledge of those who had worked in the workshop before them and added their own ideas and creativity. In the meantime, they started a family with the arrival of two children, and so work—and to some extent home—became intertwined, as all four spend most of their time there together.

Trakatan bags are born from Andrea’s hands; each piece is unique and entirely handmade, with all leather sourced from the finest certified Italian tanneries. Since Made in Italy metal fittings are hard to find, they limit their use to the essentials (internal zippers) and have replaced all other hooks with stitching. Each collection is distinguished by the screen-printed linings, produced in collaboration with the Turin prison as part of a project involving inmates.

The models are repeated year after year, with new ones added gradually; colors range from classics (black remains the most requested) to bold shades for those willing to take risks, like bronze and silver. Crafting a bag takes between two and four hours—but it is made to last, and that is the time it takes.