For a long time, the luxury accessories market has been the easiest for high end companies to exploit. But with customers now demanding to know how their products are made and why they cost, there’s now space in the market for a company like Want Les Essentiels de la Vie to focus on high quality accessories.

Founded in 2006, Want Les Essentiels is a Canadian company founded by two twin brothers, Dexter and Byron Peart. Prior to starting Want Les, Dexter worked for 8 years as Vice President of Sixty Canada, whilst Byron worked as Marketing Director of Diesel Canada. “WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie was conceived out of a ‘want’ for premium quality leather goods”, Byron states.

They use Norwegian leather for their entire leather collection, “[it’s] slightly heavier than most leathers [and has] a beautiful grain that is much tougher and long lasting”. The leather travel and computer bags are handmade in a factory in northern Italy, whilst the small leather goods are made in China’s Guanzhou region. They’ve also introduced a more accessible organic cotton line, which uses cotton sourced from a renowned Turkish cotton farm.

The main difference between Want Les Essentiels and a comparable accessories line is the quality of the leather used throughout the collection. “Many brands often use stamped leather, especially in small leather goods. This technique masks the imperfections of the leather by the stamping, allowing many companies to use lower quality grade leather,” the Pearts states. “For Want Les Essentiels de la Vie products, we believe in respecting our customers’ discerning tastes, and use only the same first quality leather through the entire collection”.

“We feel that it’s important to hark back to the days of old, where you give more to the consumer than they expect. We have, unfortunately, become too complacent about demanding more from our purchases. But from cars, to electronics, to fashion and accessories, consumers are beginning to flex their purchasing power - and ultimately that is a good thing for all of us.”