What’s SoRetro About??

Our company, SoRetro Studios, was created out of a love of vintage styles reminiscent of my childhood.  We make vintage-inspired straps for bags, cameras, purses, and guitars.

We also make a very limited number of full grain leather totes. My husband and I are the only ones who make our bags, and we have no desire to outsource or expand. We source the majority of our leather from American tanneries, including Horween.

SoRetro Studios was built from the ground up – originating as a hobby when founder Alicia Soret couldn’t find a nice, high quality purse strap that was long enough to wear crossbody style to her liking.

(Our company name was derived from my last name, which is Soret. Soret = SoRetro)

I realized I wasn’t the only one with this preference of length, and noticed that the market didn’t cater to larger-framed folks or taller people either. Most ‘crossbody’ straps being sold ended up putting the item being carried into people’s ribs, or worse yet, armpits.  I began making my straps to accommodate just about everyone. I even incorporated custom guitar straps into our product line, as well. With the demand on the rise, and the word spreading about my SoRetro Straps, I started doing art festivals, farmers markets, and craft shows. Mostly small, one day events that were fun, short, and sweet! Back in 2018, I took it to the next level and decided to sign up for my first big 3 day craft show, and had a real wake up call when I had sold out by the end of the first day. (those were some long nights!)

Several years later, my little hobby has now turned into a family business. I taught my husband Dave how to sew at the onset of the pandemic, and we pivoted for several months by making and selling over 10,000 face masks.  With this newfound skill of his, it naturally evolved into teaching him how to sew leather, as well.  We have since expanded our product line to include full-grain leather crossbody totes that Dave and I personally make, one at a time.

We’ve learned over the years that we want to keep SoRetro intimate and personal.  We want to be the sole makers of our products, and we want our customers to know that we are the ones personally creating the items they’re ordering.  As a result, we’ve created a following of people who understand they might have to wait a few weeks, or even months, for us to produce their orders.  We are fortunate however, to have our close friend Scott, who helps us with our day to day production in the studio, and my mom, who jumps in whenever we can rope her in for a visit. Some of our amazing friends and family even help out when they can, and we are lucky to have each of them be a part of SoRetro.

Dave and I have always worked together, as we founded our previous business about a month after we first met. Our lives have been entwined in graphic design, printing, mixed media, and tech since the very beginning.  What hasn’t changed though, is the fact that we still personally create made-to-order products for our customers, and place our customers’ needs and satisfaction at the very top of our list of priorities.