Shoreditch Leather Goods Shop Open Sundays: Ally Capellino

Ally Capellino's only listed shop is a small leather goods shop at 9 Calvert Avenue, London E2 7JP, a few steps from Arnold Circus in Shoreditch. It opens Monday to Saturday from 11am to 6pm and on Sunday from 12pm to 5pm. The bags and wallets are plain, unbranded and built mostly from vegetable-tanned hides from Tuscany, and the range starts with the Kenneth Leather Key Holder at £39. The same room ships the web orders and handles repairs, so staff can talk you through care as well as sizes.

The brand describes itself as rooted in Hackney since 1980, which makes it one of the longest-running independent accessories names in East London. Alison Lloyd is named on the site as founder and designer, and Wikipedia records that she started the label with Jonathan Platt. The name is Italian for little head. The brand says bags have been its focus since 2000, and the current range runs from key holders to backpacks.

Calvert Avenue came later. The studio moved here in 2004, and the brand's contact page says the shop in Shoreditch opened cautiously in 2006. It has since become a quiet anchor on a street of independent shops near the Boundary Estate. The label has collaborated with Tate, Apple and Margent Farm, and in September 2026 it marked Shoreditch Design Week with a party built around a collaboration with the designer Michael Marriott.

Material is the main reason to visit. The brand's sustainability page says its leathers are practically all vegetable-tanned hides from the Tuscan tanning area, from tanneries signed up to the Consorzio Vera Pelle Italiana Conciata al Vegetale. That consortium sets rules for traditional vegetable tanning, which uses plant tannins instead of chromium salts. The result is leather that starts slightly stiff and darkens with handling, and the shop is a good place to compare new and worn pieces side by side.

One current bag breaks the Italian pattern. The Bobby British Pasture Leather Bucket Bag in Natural is made in Somerset from undyed British vegetable-tanned leather, in a limited edition of 34 pieces. Because it is undyed, it will mark and colour faster than the black stock, so handle it before buying. The Pete Leather Card Holder in Black, at £75, is tagged as veg tan leather, and the Hocker Small Leather Purse at £70 uses a special vegetable-tanned Italian leather.

Small leather goods cover most budgets. Besides the £39 key holder, the Petra Leather Bifold Cardholder is £95, the Riley Leather Coin Card Purse is £110 and the Oliver Leather Wallet is £120. Among the bags, the Jean Boundary Leather Crossbody Bag in Navy costs £340. The Lloyd Small Calvert Leather Bucket Bag in Black is £495, and the Hoy Mini Calvert Leather Backpack in Black is £650.

Our frank advice is to skip the Oliver wallet if you still carry coins. The brand's own description warns that loose change will just fall out, because the design has no coin pocket. The Riley Coin Card Purse, £10 cheaper, does that job and still holds cards. If you want one piece that sums up the shop, look at the Calvert family, which shares its name with the street, and compare the £495 bucket bag with the £650 mini backpack on your shoulder.

The shop is also the repair desk. Every bag carries a year's guarantee, during which the brand will repair or replace a faulty product for free. After that, the sustainability page gives typical costs of around £20 for a zip pull replacement and £75 for a full replacement zip. Bring the bag to Calvert Avenue rather than posting it if you can, since staff can look at the stitching and lining with you and suggest care for the leather at the same time.

There is a trade-in scheme for long-time customers. Bring an old Ally Capellino bag to the shop and you receive a 20% discount in store on a new one. The brand does not publish a monogramming service, so do not expect initials or hot-stamping here. That fits the look of the range, which avoids visible logos. Ask instead about conditioning a new veg-tan bag before its first wet London commute.

The label's admirers are on the record. The about page quotes the Vogue stylist Lucinda Chambers praising the bags for having no extraneous detail, and Marina Willer of the design firm Pentagram calling them the antidote to the bimbo handbag. The Guardian, cited on Wikipedia, wrote that the label dominated the wardrobes of many sensible and stylish women through the 1980s and into the 1990s. The current customers still lean that way, choosing bags without a visible logo.

The atmosphere is calm and unhurried, more studio than boutique. Weekday afternoons are the easiest time to try several bags on in front of the mirror. Sunday opening starts at 12pm rather than 11am, and Columbia Road Flower Market runs nearby on Sunday mornings, so the two pair naturally on one outing. If the shop is busy, browse the street and come back, since Calvert Avenue is short.

Walk to the end of Calvert Avenue and you reach Arnold Circus, the raised garden at the centre of the Boundary Estate. The estate was officially opened in 1900 by the Prince of Wales and is widely described as the first council estate in the world. Its red-brick mansion blocks fan out from the bandstand, and the circus makes a good bench stop with a coffee before or after the shop.

For a second shop with similar values, walk south to Labour and Wait at 85 Redchurch Street, which has kept its flagship there since 2010. It occupies a former Truman pub called The Dolphin and kept the original green tiled facade. It sells hardware, brushes and household goods rather than leather, but the two shops share a taste for objects built to last. Shoreditch High Street station is a short walk from both.

Address: 9 Calvert Avenue, London E2 7JP. Hours: Monday 11am-6pm, Tuesday 11am-6pm, Wednesday 11am-6pm, Thursday 11am-6pm, Friday 11am-6pm, Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-5pm. Email: shop@allycapellino.co.uk. Nearest stations: Shoreditch High Street on the Overground, or Liverpool Street for the Tube and mainline rail.

Bring any old Ally Capellino bag if you plan to trade it in, and keep proof of purchase for anything still under its one-year guarantee. The Karpo APP can map a Saturday loop from Calvert Avenue to Redchurch Street, or suggest a cafe near Arnold Circus where you can sit with your new bag before heading home.