About Stella
Circular design, product longevity and impeccable aesthetics:
the cornerstones of Stella's craft and design polished over decades.
the cornerstones of Stella's craft and design polished over decades.
From custom to serial
Stella's bags and accessories form a lineup of serial products, shipped to customers worldwide. But her journey started in 2004 as a leather crafter, creating custom bags alone for her first customers.
By 2013 the demand had outgrown Stella's capacity, so she expanded her team by hiring her first crafters. In 2015 she started systematic work on the circular design-based collection, replacing the custom works with a thoroughly thought through product lineup.
In 2017 the growing team moved into more spacious premises in central Tallinn, opened the first Stella store and an art gallery accompanying it.
Today Stella's craft is sold in our Tallinn store, online and through selected resellers and pop-up events in the export markets.
Designing like an engineer
Through testing out various styles, technologies and methods as a designer, Stella has developed a highly efficient product design approach for her whole product lineup. Each product fits into a bigger picture resulting in maximised raw material usage, easy after care and repairing of the products but also options for circular reuse of the bags as material for the second round of products in the end of product's lifecycle.
Throught all that the design language becomes clean, natural and minimalist. Stella's bags avoid composite materials, lining and stiching unless where necessary. Every detail has a functional reason. Nothing is excessive and the main role is given to the material which over time starts to tell its own story.
Academic Work
In 2020 Stella was invited to lead the Department of Accessory Design in Estonian Academy of Arts. She took on the role together with a friend and fellow designer Kristiina Nurk with a goal of bringing their learnings on craft work and running their own leather crafting businesses and modernizing the study program accordingly.
Doing academic work beside running her company has added layers, depth and new perspectives also her entrepreneurial work – as if she's back to school herself.
Doing academic work beside running her company has added layers, depth and new perspectives also her entrepreneurial work – as if she's back to school herself.
A Life on the Move
Stella's family of six share their life between two cities and the country home. Both Stella's main studio and the Academy are located in Tallinn while the family's main residence is in Southern city of Tartu.
The country home, a remote bog island, is even further, deep in the Southern Estonia. While Stella has always been a city girl, she spent the summers of her childhood in the countryside helping her grandmother with farmwork. Now she takes care of her own vegetable garden.
Dividing life between three locations means frequent commuting by train or by car — a good way to clear the mind and get inspiration from the change of environment.
The country home, a remote bog island, is even further, deep in the Southern Estonia. While Stella has always been a city girl, she spent the summers of her childhood in the countryside helping her grandmother with farmwork. Now she takes care of her own vegetable garden.
Dividing life between three locations means frequent commuting by train or by car — a good way to clear the mind and get inspiration from the change of environment.
Meet Stella's team who are designing, crafting
and delivering the bags and accessories.
and delivering the bags and accessories.