One Man's Trash

One Man's Trash was started with the planet in mind. The ethos is to transform scrap leather and offcuts into funky, unique, statement earrings with a happy, healthy, life ahead of them.

It's all ran by me, Anna, a Manxie through and through but currently living in London. It all started when I was sent down to a leather house in East London's Whitechapel. I was there to collect some material for a designer who was working on a show for London Fashion Week, but while I was waiting, I spotted a large pile of very nice leather offcuts. Some of the pieces were huge!

Since an animal’s skin grows irregularly, natural leather does not come in an ideal geometric shape. Waste of genuine leather is generally high, despite all attempts to optimally divide the existing material. 'Leather cutting waste' is what is left over after cutting away the desired shapes. When asked about the leather offcuts' destiny, the man in the shop informed me that what she was looking at was his waste bin...

I knew there and then I wanted to find a purpose for all these left-overs and subsequently walked out with most of the bin's content! From that point up until the pandemic, making earrings had just been a hobby. Often working in very corporate environments, I saw it simply as a creative outlet on my days off. But since March 2020, I have had more time to concentrate on it and it's really taken off. People might have to stay at home, but they still want to treat themselves or send little cheer-up presents to friends, and that where One Man's Trash comes in.

My creations are handmade at my kitchen table. They are light in weight, are only made of material that was going to be thrown away anyway, and each pair is unique. None of those awkward occasions where you turn up to a party wearing the same thing as someone else... 

My creations can be found at www.onemanstrashuk.etsy.com or on Instagram at @onemanstrashuk