Angus where are you from in Australia
Angus where are you from in Australia?
I grew up in Sydney and Heidi Semetka-Plate my wife, grew up in Newcastle - about 2 hours north of Sydney, we both moved back to Newcastle together in 2019 and got re-set here after living and running the business from Bali Indonesia for 5 years.
When and where was the idea of Sancia conceived?
We were living in Oaxaca Mexico in 2010, and we fell in love with the traditional leather industry that still exists there, we started talking about starting our own leather company and 2 years later we quit our jobs and SANCIA was born
What is Sancia known for?
A fusion of traditional artisan craftmanship and contemporary aesthetics. Lifelong pieces that are made with an ethical and environmentally sustainable focus
Does Sancia have a loyal following?
Absolutely – a very large percentage of our customers are return customers. We work really hard to make all our customers feel special.
I can see you work with artisans – can you tell me more please?
Much of the details and finer work in our pieces is done by hand, whether it is the hand-carving on our Babylon bar bag that we are working to re-release this year, oversized hand stitching and hand embroidered details on our RTW collections or the handwoven bars and whip stitches that we are known for on our accessories. - We try to implement as much detail and care into all the finer elements of our pieces.
Is Sustainability important to Sancia?
Absolutely we see sustainability as an evolving process, but constantly searching for sustainable materials we have watched over the years how our supply markets are shifting to meet the sustainable focused demands of brands like ours. The process is far from complete but with a continued sustainable focus we are pushing in the right direction.
When you design the Sancia collection - how are you inspired?
Inspiration comes from a lot of different places, sometimes it is travel, sometimes it is something as simple as realizing that there is a certain clothing item that we want to make for ourselves.
Inspiration is a truly varied process. For example we had one collection that was purely built around 1800’s botanical prints sourced from my late grandfathers art collection, - (‘Rowe Street’ Q4 Resort 2021)
If a woman was to own just one item from your collection - which one would you suggest and why?
Without a doubt our Babylon Bar Bag is the signature piece from SANCIA that should be in every woman’s collection. We have designed it in more than 20 different variations, and it truly is a one of kind conquer all handbag.
Do you have any words of positivity to share with our Scoop readers?
I’m not really one for quotes but Heidi wrote this in early March 2020 right when Covid was taking off and I thought it was really beautiful, and it serves as a bit of an insight into the kind of things that inspire and drive SANCIA.
‘Sunday Brunch, days surrounded by your favourite people, the heat for the sun, a warm westerly breeze, laughing until it hurts, bike rides, rainbow pink sunsets, planning an adventure, midnight phosphorescence swims, the sound of cicadas, electric blue water, freshly cut grass, hot summer nights and slow sacred days… x’
