Our Designer is Patricia Charley of Oakland CA. Our company is called PCco. Handbags. Patricia Graduated with a masters from UC Berkeley in textile design and shortly after opened a very successful ceramics business called Klinknerville Design Works. She has had her work featured at Gumps, the Guggenheim, the Museum of American Craft, and in many international private collections, Pat Charley was also featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly Magazine in 1995. Additionally she sold many pieces to Peet's Coffee and Tea, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and several other large retailers. Unfortunately because of large scale counterfeit competition Patricia decided to close the business and transition to life as a public middle school art and home economics teacher. There Patricia spent 13 years dedicated to pursuit of rich art curriculum and support of young artists by the community.

Patricia has always been fascinated by Native American art especially the works of the Navajo, North American Indian Feather Work, Anasazi work, Planes Indian bead work, and Winnebago ribbon work. In January 2011 this love of ancient American Craft came to life again for her when she decided to partner with the owners of several Navajo rug distributors in New Mexico to create what would be known as the "Original American Collection" In this collection every item is one of a kind, and hand made, our handbags are entirely produced in the United States. This collection features the highest quality leathers from Spain, Argentina, Germany, and Italy. We use vintage buttons and coins along with leather details, and hand woven tassels ,to embellish our handbags. Our bags may also include antique details and semi precious stones. The majority of our collection incorporates the use of Navajo Rugs that have been salvaged and given a new life in our collection. We never buy or use a Navajo Rug in good condition rather we buy fragments or damaged pieces that we restore. All of our products are lined with the best quality suede and the highest quality hardware. PCco. Handbags also specializes in custom orders.

Our target audience is everyone from Navajo art lovers to fashion forward trend setters. Our pieces work well with new modern looks, English Riding Looks, and Native cultural looks. Our designs are for everyone from the most conservative tastes to the wildest palates PCco. Handbags can create items for all types and personalities.

This line is so important to us because we believe there is real value in restoring REAL American Classic design and paying tribute to the earliest Navajo Artists by revitalizing their work. When people buy PCco. they can think about the fact that no one else in the world has a bag like they do. No mass production of their product can ever take place, and owners of these bags know their handbag comes with a story, and has seen 100 years of history go by.

There have been a million learning experiences and design disasters along the way. We learned early on that we could not sew our products on regular sewing machines, but needed the expertise of professional leather tailors. Once we had several rugs that had to be carefully un-stitched by hand, because we almost unraveled them in our experimenting. We learned that you cannot order leather hides but must go hand select each piece, once we ordered an outlandishly expensive hide that we picked out in a deep brown color but was delivered to us in hot pink.

At the end of the day art is worth it no matter the cost. Our company is fighting to prove there is always value in art, in history, and makes a statement about work being brought back to the United States and produced fairly. Our mission is to grow our company ethically and pay tribute to artists of past and present.