At the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic, longtime clothing designer Dame Powell pivoted his custom clothing business to make specialty cloth coverings to combat the face mask shortage.
His interest piqued by experimenting with different materials, the skilled craftsman then began recycling old leather clothes from family and friends to create keepsake wallets. With over a decade of experience in design and a growing passion for leather work, Dame started making custom bags and purses—an effort first initiated by his own need for a camera bag when he had to pick up an additional job during the pandemic.
“I had to travel, and I was doing sports marketing and content creation. I found myself needing a bag … and I was gonna go buy one, right?” Dame says. “I started looking at higher end things and I was like, ‘Why am I buying something I know I can probably make?’ ”
People are also reading…
Showcasing his own custom clothing and accessories, along with posting the process of his leather creations online, garnered the designer significant attention. Already outfitting an impressive clientele, from athletes like Nate Robinson and CJ Moore to social media stars like Logan Paul and Buffalo’s own Chef Darian Bryan, it didn’t take long for Dame to align his business with the growing demand for luxury leather accessories.
Now with an online shop called Dame Ave, the sophisticated designer is selling his handcrafted, high-end creations—bags, wallets, belts and more—throughout the city, with a mission to instill pride for locally made, luxury wares in Buffalo.
“When you think of a Hermes Kelly bag or a Birkin of some sorts, those bags are made by hand, by a different artist almost every time. And it takes 36 hours to build that bag, hence the price. And you really can’t put a machine to it because of how it is built,” Dame says. “That is how I’m building my own pieces.”
Deeply inspired by the city’s urban style, Dame’s bag designs and their names pay homage to Buffalo and places he’s traveled. The Reggata is his flagship: a diamond-shaped, hand-stitched flapbag made with epsom leather and 18-carat gold plated hardware ($500). And The Mariner, named after his childhood home in West Buffalo, is a slim, functional handbag with handles and an adjustable, detachable leather strap, in royal purple or hazelnut ($600). He’s currently working on a third signature bag called The Langfield, in honor of his time living in the Langfield projects on the East Side.
“Why do I feel like we always have to go out of our way to find luxury as opposed to looking within, you know what I mean?” he says. “We create the culture anyway. It ain’t cool until we say it is.”
