A new brand of leather goods, created by Christina Zeller and Damian O’Sullivan in 2022
Driven by their imagination and their passion for leather goods, the creative duo pushes the boundaries of the possible whilst respecting the crafts rigor and maintaining the greatest degree of artistic freedom.
With a master’s in journalism, Christina Zeller was not predestined for her professional career. It’s on the runway as a model, at the age of 23, that she discovered the world of fashion which she has since never left.
She worked for the biggest fashion houses and designers in France and Belgium. Karl Lagerfeld gave her wings, audaciousness, fantasy, and the privilege to experiment. Christian Lacroix the rigor of research to always search for the exceptional and to never settle for second best. Her close collaboration with Riccardo Tisci led to the development of all his accessories.
Enrichened and emboldened by this experience, she joined Delvaux in 2011, where she spent nine years at the helm of the creative, marketing and communication department, contributing to the splendor and radiance of the brand.
‘I always worked with passion and have been lucky enough to start every day with a smile. With DAMIAAN I have come back full circle and can feel all the emotions and excitement as though it was the first time.’ Christina Zeller
Upon graduating from the Royal College of Art, Damian O’Sullivan went knocking on the pearly gates of luxury heaven and was welcomed in by Hermès ceo of the time, Jean-Louis Dumas, who took an instant liking to his designs.
This flying start ushered in a creative journey that would see him design a monumental tower in London for Thames Water as well as helping Anish Kapoor build his epic water sculpture ‘Decension’. Designing shoes for Asics and Camper and many porcelain creations for Royal Delft, Rosenthal and Vista Alegre. The last fifteen years he worked for Hermès and Louis Vuitton, designing tableware, leather goods and home accessories.
But like Odysseus, after thirty years, Damian is returning to his love of bags. Why bags? Although maybe not the world’s oldest profession, making bags goes back millennia. Practical and utilitarian then and still today, these days however, we expect our bags to also carry stories, and it’s these stories DAMIAAN wants to tell.