A Call to Create: Sydnie Banks Handbags 

In 33 years, Sydnie Peebles has accomplished what would take most people a lifetime. Her luxury, hand-stitched handbags have graced runways and magazine racks around the world – the result of her tireless determination, incredible resilience and an innate call to create. 

“Growing up I was always interested in building, creating and making things,” Sydnie said. “I wasn’t great academically, but I knew I had an interesting set of skills that I wondered how I’d apply in my future.”

Raised by a bronze sculptor and avid collector, Sydnie was always surrounded by art and encouraged to find her passion and follow it. When she came across a YouTube video of Hungarian craftsman Marcell Mrsan, making leather shoes, she was sold. Her father connected her with Guthrie-based bootmaker Lisa Sorrell, who agreed to accept Sydnie as an apprentice.

“Making boots is incredibly challenging,” Sydnie said. “She told me if I could learn to do that, I could make anything.” During their time together, Sydnie built essential skills (and muscles) that set her ahead by decades. 

Sydnie applied these skills for a time, opening a baby shoe company in honor of her late brother. But after facing yet another loss, the stillbirth of her son, Banks, at 25 weeks, she spent a period paralyzed by fear.

“So many scary things had happened, I just kind of hid from the world for a bit.” In 2020, Sydnie woke up from her creative slump – literally. “Twice, I woke up in the middle of the night with the strongest impression that I needed to create again.” 

“I pulled out some old hand-stitching tools and started working on a bag, and it clicked – this is what I was meant to be doing. It really ignited something within me.” 

Once again, Sydnie tackled the learning process head-on. “I hunted down the top hand-stitcher in England and asked for an apprenticeship. I knew it was impractical, but it was worth a try.” 

He accepted, and 10 days spent working side-by-side set her skills leagues ahead. “When I got home, I made my first bag and it sold before it was even finished.”

The appeal of Sydnie Banks bags is obvious, even to an untrained eye. They are unique, widely varied, colorful, and detailed – entirely one-of-one. “The quality is truly what sets them apart,” she said, explaining how she sketches, cuts, and stitches with thread coated in her father-in-law’s beeswax. And she does it all by hand. 

Her bags are for people in search of something unique, those looking for a little luxury, or as she puts it “for anyone who appreciates art.” Her art has earned recognition in Elle UK and on the runways of New York Fashion Week. 

She was recently invited to participate in Paris Fashion Week. But each time she sat down to accept an invitation, something stopped her. Call it intuition, the mother of four and accomplished artist said. “It just didn’t feel right.”

Since similar signs had guided her craft to this point, she wasn’t going to stop listening to them now. Rather than unveil her latest collection of Sydnie Banks luxury handbags abroad, the 33-year-old mother of four is finalizing plans for a fall fashion show held in her Edmond home. The collection is aptly titled ‘Homeward Bound’. 

Learn more about the brand and the real, raw stories that inspire it at sydniebanks.com.