I love leather. I love that it endures. I am self-taught...and a bit selfish.  I didn't want to open a store until I personally understood the quality and wear of the items I create. 

I make a range of items that improve with age. Belts, cases, bags and dog gear from the simplest to the ornate. I have worked in fashion, with designers such as Sophie Theallet and Rebecca Minkoff, making show samples and producing orders from my basement workshop. 

Our Story

I thought the lil guy needed a black collar with spikes on it. I bought a scrap of leather from an old european shoe repairman, found the buckle and the spikes at a flea market, and went to work with a dull utility blade. After a few mistakes, I had a half-decent piece of leather cut, with seven spikes screwed into it, and now I needed to rivet the buckle into place. My friend Ron said, “I think my friend got a custom belt made by a street vendor somewhere on 6th Avenue. He might be able to rivet your collar.”  It was a beautiful spring day. I borrowed my girlfriend’s bicycle and rode from the East Village over to 6th and 23rd, and having made one pass up 6th without seeing him, I turned around, now headed downtown, in the bike lane, looking for rivet guy, phone ringing, answer it. I rode right into a police bike stop while going the wrong way down 6th Avenue, on the phone.

While the affectionate, unwavering officer was writing my ticket, a delivery truck pulled out across the avenue to reveal…the rivet guy and his table of leather accessories.

$100 to NYC Finance and $5 for the street vendor to rivet the buckle to my collar, Willy the wiener was the proud owner of the very first, custom, handcrafted in NYC, leather accessory item ever produced by Wes Carnes. But really, Willy was always quite a proud little dachshund, and I’m pretty sure didn’t give two hoots what was around his neck; which was a good thing because honestly, that first piece I made was pretty rough.