Horodok: From Sketch to Stitch
Every Poelle bag starts in one place: Horodok, a town in the Lviv region of Ukraine. Pavlo Popko grew up here, here he founded Poelle with Petro Lyshak in 2021, and here our atelier still works today.
The workshop where it began
Pavlo has loved working with his hands since he was a child. “As a kid I spent a lot of time in a makeshift home workshop with my father and grandfather, making toys for myself,” he recalls. His first leather piece came from an old bag of his grandmother’s that he found in the attic: he took it apart and made a knife sheath, and a wallet from what was left.
Pavlo was already sewing leather accessories at school, and later studied at the Academy of Arts. In 2017 the hobby became work: Pavlo began selling men’s wallets and leather accessories on Etsy. In 2019 he rented a space for production for the first time and asked family and friends to join him. The atelier you see in these photographs grew from there.
All under one roof
The Horodok atelier is the brand’s own workshop, not a contractor. Patterns are drawn here, leather and suede are cut, bags are stitched, edges are finished and every piece is packed. From the first pattern to the finished bag, a piece never leaves the atelier, so we answer for each stage ourselves.
We make in small batches, without overproduction. That way every bag passes through the same few pairs of hands.
We work with natural leather and natural suede. Linings are eco-leather or textile, and the hardware is gold-tone metal. The materials, dimensions and weight of each model are on its product page.
We wear it first
Before a new model reaches you, we wear it ourselves, every day. And we check every finished bag by hand: the seams, the edges, the hardware, how it opens and closes, how it sits in the hand, how the clasp sounds.
When the bag you want is not in stock
Sometimes the color or size you want is not in stock. Then the atelier makes the bag for you. Made-to-order pieces take 10–15 business days, or until the date shown on the product page, before they ship.
What stays after
What leaves the atelier stays in our care. Every bag has a one-year warranty from the day of delivery: we repair a manufacturing defect or replace the bag at our cost, with shipping both ways covered. We don’t offer paid repairs, including after the warranty ends. Our care guide explains how to keep its shape.
Poelle has no showrooms of its own: you order online, and you have 30 days from delivery to return an unused piece.
We believe in the value of making, in the chance to make things that bring beauty and pleasure to everyday life. There is more about how the atelier works on our Atelier page, and about us on the About page.
