a chance
encounter
“You’re lucky you found your way back down in this weather. Next time you should line your shoes with some Herdwick wool to keep your feet warm and dry. There's so much value in that wool, you know. If you had time, you could really do something useful with it.”
Little did designer Alli Abdelal know that a passing conversation with a local farmer in the English Lake District back in 2015 would set in motion the ideas that led to the creation of RUSKIN.
“I remember the day clearly — the familiar rain driving across the hillside as I descended into the valley, paths soft underfoot, the visibility down.”
Alli and the farmer spoke briefly about Herdwick sheep and their wool — the kind of familiar exchange that comes from a chance encounter there. The suggestion of lining shoes with Herdwick wool, and the value held in the material, stayed with her.
Over the following year, she returned repeatedly to the idea, considering how a fibre like that — with the right properties for contemporary design and fabric development — might be translated into something more refined without losing its character. She began searching for skilled artisans who could understand the material and work it with care. Slowly, that search became a direction — not so much a plan, but a set of decisions and relationships that began to take shape and gather momentum.
Today, RUSKIN is a fully fledged design studio focused on artisan bag making, rooted in material integrity, meticulous craftsmanship, and human connection. The collection comprises custom tweed and crafted leather pieces defined by exceptional workmanship and a softly muted colour palette.
MEET ALLI ABDELAL
Many of the ideas that have come to shape RUSKIN can be traced to the English Lake District, where Alli grew up. It is a landscape that encourages observation, particularly the changing colours and slower pace of life.
After living and working internationally, Alli returned from California to Oxford and established the RUSKIN studio.
Today, her work spans Oxford and Rome, where she collaborates closely with artisans to create the collection.
Drawn to texture, colour, and the sensory qualities of materials, Alli has always been interested in the details that shape our experience of design. The softness of a fabric, the character of a leather, the richness of colour, and the evidence of a skilled hand - these are rarely the things we notice first, yet often the qualities we value most over time.
The RUSKIN collection