The Maker Behind Nichols London

Every Nichols London piece is designed, cut and finished in our London studio and made to order, by hand. This is the story of how Nichols London began.

Fifteen years at the top of the craft

Before Nichols London existed, Rory Nichols spent fifteen years making leather goods for some of the most demanding names in the industry.

Rory He trained in footwear design at the London College of Fashion, before joining Nat Boyd, a high-end accessories maker whose calfskin pieces sold through Harrods and Liberty. Three and a half years there taught him what it meant to make something worth stocking.

From Nat Boyd he joined Dunhill's London workshop. Not the retail operation. The bench where their apex pieces are made: top-frame briefcases, lid-over briefcases, commissions in the highest-grade British leathers including Bakers bridal hides and traditional vegetable tans. He rose from Trainee Maker to Junior Craftsperson, working alongside people who had spent their careers at Hermès, Yves Saint Laurent and Tanner Krolle.

"I was extremely lucky. The senior craftspeople I worked with had been in the industry for decades. Their skills were second to none, and they were extremely generous with sharing their knowledge."

After Dunhill, Rory ran the medium leather goods department at the newly relaunched RBJ Simpsons, a heritage London maker refunded by the William Asprey and Sons group. It was there he learned how to organise batch production for wholesale clients without allowing quality to slip, a discipline that still shapes how Nichols London approaches corporate commissions today.

Why he started his own studio

"After ten years making products for other brands, I felt it was time to create something for myself, to bring a more contemporary feel to the style of products I'd made throughout my career. I love the traditional techniques, and the pieces I've made for all the brands I've worked with. But I felt there was room for similarly built products with a different kind of aesthetic. I leased my first studio and haven't looked back."

How he works

Every Nichols London piece is made to order, by hand, in the London studio. Nothing is mass-produced. Nothing waits in a warehouse. Work begins when a commission is placed, which is why each piece can be personalised, and why it takes the time it takes.

"Years at the bench, first as a craftsman and then as a senior one, taught me to see where real beauty lives: in the unique characteristics of each hide, and in what you choose to leave out of the design. I've seen how mass-market companies stiffen their leather so their products survive packed shipping containers. We don't do that. Our leathers are allowed to be soft if they are meant to be. We bring out the natural characteristics of the beautiful leathers we use. No two commissions are the same, and that's the part I love."

The result is a piece built to be kept. Not because it has to be, but because nothing found afterwards seems worth replacing it.

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