- Based
- Pawtucket, Rhode Island
- Craft
- Hand-built art clutches
Kent Stetson makes handbags out of his own art. In 2003, after taking down an exhibition of his paintings where nothing sold, he started cutting up the canvases and sewing them into bags. They sold right away, and bags became his medium.
He grew up on a working horse farm in New Hampshire, watching his mother repair harnesses and gear for the horses, which taught him the basics of leatherwork. He went on to Brown University. Today he and a small team of artisans make his signature clutches to order in a historic mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Each bag takes nearly 50 steps and about three days, and Sarah Jessica Parker, Martha Stewart and Megan Thee Stallion have all carried one. "If you want to be left alone," he told Rhode Island PBS, don't carry one of his pieces.
For ModernTribe he brings the Jewish jokes: coated-canvas clutches like the Mazel and Mahjong crossbody clutches, a Carnegie Deli clutch, a "Kvetch" clutch and a Super Star of David design. Each is signed by the artist and comes with a removable crossbody chain.
Good to know
- Celebrity clientsSarah Jessica Parker, Martha Stewart, Megan Thee Stallion
- PressRhode Island PBS (2024), Boston Magazine (2023), Brown Alumni Magazine (2023)
Follow Kent Stetson
InstagramFacebook
