Even Better Than a Vintage Bag? A Vintage Bag Embellished By Dylan Ryu

There’s no use crying over spilled milk, as the saying goes. But spilled Bordeaux? That’s a drop-everything, sound-the-alarm level of panic—and no matter how quickly you react, there’s probably no amount of water, salt, or vinegar that can save a burgundy-splattered blouse or carpet. Dylan Ryu’s business may never have happened if she hadn’t “ruined” her ’70s silk Dior bag by clumsily spilling a glass of red wine on it at a Lower East Side party. Some girls may have deemed it a total disaster and promptly thrown the bag away; instead, Ryu stitched vintage lace and hand-dyed tape onto her treasured hand-me-down to artfully conceal the stains—and pretty soon, everyone in New York wanted one. “Strangers on the street or in restaurants often asked me where they could buy my bag,” she tells Vogue. Friends were asking for their own handmade bags, too, so Ryu began embellishing vintage Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton bags as a hobby, sourcing patches, ribbons, brooches, and scraps of fabric from flea markets and antique jewelry auctions in New York and Europe. Eventually, the insider-secret bags weren’t so secret anymore, and a shop in Seoul, South Korea, asked Ryu to host her first pop-up.

That was back in 2005. If you’re wondering how it took this long for you to hear about Ryu—who calls her brand History by Dylan—you probably live Stateside. She’s been flying under the radar here in New York, but has a small following in Asia. Her bags are stocked at 10 Corso Como in Seoul, South Korea (where she used to live and work as a designer and fashion editor); at On Pedder in Hong Kong; and at select luxury retailers in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, and Europe. “I [connect] with [buyers and stores] via accidental offline opportunities, rather than on Instagram,” Ryu explains. It’s a happily old-school, early-’00s way of doing things, as opposed to the influx of Instagram-first brands entering the scene in 2018.

By now, Ryu has built up a massive archive of vintage embellishments, fabrics, and jewels from over a decade of scouring markets and auctions. She works with private antique dealers, too, and thoughtfully considers how every patch and charm might work together before she begins sewing. “Each bag has a unique name,” she explains. “[They might be] titles of my favorite songs, books, or a combination of my favorite words.” Sometimes there’s a bigger theme: For a recent Art Deco event, she used materials from the early ’20s and ’30s. Another capsule of vintage Louis Vuitton Speedy bags came with nautical crests and ribbons down the center. She’s also hosted customization events in several stores, where customers can choose their own combination from an array of fabrics and embellishments. If you want a truly meaningful bag, Ryu does custom orders, too: She’ll quiz you on your favorite colors, numbers, letters, and symbols, then transform an heirloom bag into something a lot more personal. Maybe you want a symbol for each of your children, or you want your bag to align with your zodiac; chances are, Ryu will find the perfect jumble of add-ons for it.

It’s a concept we can see a lot of New Yorkers getting into. In fact, if you’re here in the city, you’ll be able to shop Ryu’s bags at 10 Corso Como when it opens at the South Street Seaport on September 6. Until then, we suggest saving your pennies for your own one-of-a-kind bag, and keep an eye out for History by Dylan customization events, too.