This store requires javascript to be enabled for some features to work correctly.

Fortune Favors the Brave

Fortune Favors the Brave

“The greater the risk, the greater the reward.” “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” “Fortune favors the brave.” Sure, the quotes are cheesy, but the sentiment stands: the only way to know how something will pan out—how truly amazing it could be, or, yes, how spectacularly it might fail—is to actually take a chance and give it a shot. Just ask Alex Bender, the talented designer behind the Berlin-based leather goods line of the same name.

In 2011, Alex was working part time as a seamstress sewing custom bridal gowns; on her days off, she worked on her line of colorful leather handbags. Underpaid, overworked, and at the mercy of an unkind boss, she reached her breaking point. “I decided: Okay, I can quit and just try to make a living off my bags,” she recalls. Despite lukewarm early sales, Alex handed in her notice and committed to give the fledgling business her all.