Before there were bags, there were hats.
The House
Gráinne Maher makes leather goods the way she once made hats: by hand, by eye, and by shaping material until it holds a line of its own.
The house was founded in Belfast by its namesake designer, whose training in sculptural millinery shows in every bag: structure over embellishment, form over hardware, a silhouette you can read across a room.
Each design is named for a goddess of Irish mythology — ANU, ÉRIU, BANBHA — anchoring the collection in the island's oldest stories. The naming is not decoration. It is the brief: bags with presence, made for women who carry their own.
Every piece is designed in Belfast and made in Tuscany, at a family-run atelier working in small production runs, in deliberately limited quantities.
Gráinne Maher Founder & Designer
Gráinne Maher was born in Belfast. She trained first in music — and it was through performance that she found her way to making, after a defining encounter with the work of milliner Philip Treacy turned her toward sculptural design.
Over more than fifteen years in millinery she built an international reputation for contemporary headpieces that challenged the conventions of occasion wear — expressive pieces for women who wanted presence rather than politeness.
Her move into leather goods is not a change of direction but a change of material. The approach is unchanged: storytelling through structure. Clean lines. Sculptural forms. A narrative of place, craft and identity, carried in the object itself.
Recognition
Gráinne Maher is a member of the British Hat Guild, alongside Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones.
Her pieces have been worn by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, Selena Gomez, Alexandra Burke and Sophie Anderton, and shown at London Fashion Week through FASHIONSCOUT.
Her work has appeared in ELLE UK, Vogue Italia, Harper's Bazaar China, Irish Times Magazine and EDITORIAL NY.
She curates the Irish Millinery Collective and hosts the Hat Chats series.
Being showcased in such an iconic building is such an honour, as well as a wonderful opportunity to share my story and creations with visitors from around the world.
— Gráinne Maher, on Northern Threads at Titanic Belfast
The Making
Every Gráinne Maher bag is made in Tuscany, at a family-run atelier, in small production runs.
The house's signature — the sculpted knot — is built from corded leather, shaped and hand-stitched so that the closure and the ornament are one and the same. It is slow work. It is meant to be.
The leather is calf, chosen for the way it holds an edge and takes structure — the qualities a former milliner looks for first.