About

History of Kørt

 

 

 

As a 5th generation leather artisan, and direct descendant of the Master Saddle Maker, HD Walker, our CEO and Creative Director, Courtney Marles, knows the importance of generational leather goods. Hand-crafting each piece in her boutique workshop in Norway, she carefully selects the highest quality, natural leather to suit each product. Each piece is meticulously crafted from a single, organic, Scandinavian hide, to give you the most luxurious leather product for you to treasure for years to come.

 

Leather craft isn't only for luxury handbags and accessories, Courtney's family has been farming cattle for generations in Australia, and the UK, before they immigrated to Australia in the 1800s. This is where the necessity for leather crafting began. Ensuring a cattle farmer has the right tack for their horses and carts is essential to running a cattle station.

 

Being brought up on a cattle station in Queensland, Australia, Courtney worked with horses and cattle from a very young age, a skill she still uses on the farm she shares with her husband in Norway today.

 

 

Kørt the name

 

 

 

Courtney's lineage can be traced back to the Norsk family of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, so when the opportunity arose to move to Norway for work in 2017, Courtney took on the adventure. After a number of mispronunciations of her name, Courtney was given the nickname, by her Norwegian colleagues, "Kurt", which they later 'Norwegianised' the spelling to "Kørt". Courtney is fondly known by her closest friends as Kørt, and this is where our brand name originates. The word "Kørt" does not hold any meaning in Norway, in Danish, however, it means 'Driven'.

 

 

The Kymera: A history

 

 

 

"When I started traveling for work, I realised I was taking so many different bags with me, like a laptop bag, a backpack, a clutch for evening dinners. I wanted to reduce the amount of bags I had to bring, but also wanted to be prepared for different situations. So I searched for bags with versatile sizes and uses. When I couldn’t find anything as functional, good-looking, or sustainably manufactured as I knew was possible, I designed and made my own. That’s how the Kymera was born.” — Courtney Marles, CEO & Creative Director

 

The Kymera has been through over 10 iterations of designing, making, testing and repeat before it became the bag you know and love today. This obsession to create the "perfect travel bag" is what drove Courtney to create this masterpiece.

 At Kørt Håndlaget Lær, we believe the items you buy and wear should serve you with style and functionality, without any compromise. Our signature pieces, the Kymera, and the Kassowari, are many bags in one, designed to transform as occasions arise, to suit the moments and flow of your workday or overseas travels, and to transition with you as you move through all stages of your life. The promise of intelligent design, beauty, and simplicity is woven into each and every one of our products, along with the quality and trust of being individually handcrafted in Norway. Watch how our Kassowari is made via this link.