umi Salt Rock

When Kathryn sent me the link to her beautiful brand umi, I couldn’t wait to share it with you. We know I’m a fierce supporter of local and love anything that’s made right here in SA, but when it’s equally beautiful and designed with such care, the admiration turns to obsession.

‘umi’ means life, mother, servant and ocean in Hawaiian, all words which encompass much of the heart behind this KZN brand, which developed from the love of creating and the euphoria felt when finding beautiful things. ‘umi’ also means ’10’ and the initial idea was to only create 10 of each piece, but this has evolved and some items now only come in small runs of 2 or 3, others in larger quantities – but you can always be assured that the items will be unique.

The brand is based in Salt Rock, a tropical paradise up the North Coast of KZN, where the days are balmy and the nights humid. This tropical influence led the Kathryn and her partner Nikki, to giving their bag range Hawaiian names – so you can order a nalu black leather bag, or the large stone kai bag, along with a range of beautiful clutch bags, card wallets, purses, sunglass cases and accessories.

All products are handmade and hand stitched by Nikki and each one is unique, as only small quantities are available and they’re never able to get the same leather twice. The distressed pieces hold a particular charm as they exude character and only improve with age – we all now how amazing a trusty leather bag is that’s been by our side for years!

The current range includes bags and items mentioned already, but there are also fab laptop bags, desk pads and mouse pads, as well as a small range of kid’s items which are new – how cute are those purses?! Most of the items are unisex, so your guys can get in on the action too.
Plus, the item I’m giving away is unisex :)

GIVEAWAY:
I’m giving away a beautiful leather desk pad which will fit your laptop and mouse on it – unlike material/silicone versions it looks sexy AF and it won’t get tatty with age – it will just improve in character and wear really well.

TO ENTER: {this giveaway is now closed, winner was Nicola Meyer}
1. Like umi and Ask Ashe on facebook
2. Like umi and Ask Ashe on instagram
3. Leave a comment on this post to say which accounts you’ve followed – you’ll receive 1 entry per account
4. For extra entries, you can leave a comment on any of the giveaway posts saying which item is your fave in the umi range

Photographs:
Gerrit van Zyl