The Handcrafted Leather Goods of Cincinnati’s Baqette

Quinn McIlhargey-Nicholson entered the fashion retail world in 2012. At the same time, she began pursuing a smaller, more colorful, leatherworking project, which came to be known as Baqette. Her foray into bag-making began during a visit to her uncle’s Cumberland Furniture in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, in the remnant pieces of leather, she saw the possibility to create items that stood apart from the mainstream.

“I was just playing around with my uncle’s scraps at the furniture company,” she recalls, adding, “His ‘scraps’ are full hides and half hides.”

McIlhargey-Nicholson created a small studio in her postcollege apartment and began experimenting with her sewing machine. By 2013 her creations were gaining a following online, and a few years later she was selling them locally in Cincinnati markets. She launched Baqette in 2017 and left her full-time job three years later to focus on the bag-making business.

Today, Baqette operates out of Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills neighborhood, making eye-catching bags, wallets, straps and key tools. McIlhargey-Nicholson is committed to sustainable production, and although she can’t promise all products are made from upcycled leather, she uses it as often as she can.

When designing a new product, McIlhargey-Nicholson creates a prototype and preps the piece with the help of her studio assistants, who pick up where others leave off, cutting leather or sewing zippers, which results in several people working to complete one item.

Although she says it is hard to pick favorites, McIlhargey-Nicholson is particularly fond of the Crescent Woodie, a half-moon-shaped bag with an ovular handle designed by local woodworker Colin Cormier. She also takes pride in the Party Bucket, a collaboration with Lawn Party, a vintage glass-bead company with an expansive jewelry collection.

Her pieces are colorful and chic, but McIlhargey-Nicholson notes that as much as her creations can be used to make fashion statements, she doesn’t want them to lose their functionality.

“Use a leather bag and get a stain on it,” she says. “It’s not a luxury handbag, but it is well made. It’s handmade and has a lot of thought behind it, but it’s not too precious that you shouldn’t use it on a daily basis.”

For more information, visit baqette.com.

For more Ohio inspiration, sign up for our Ohio Magazine newsletters. 

Ohio Magazine is available in a beautifully designed print issue that is published 7 times a year, along with Spring-Summer and Fall-Winter editions of LongWeekends magazine. Subscribe to Ohio Magazine and stay connected to beauty, adventure and fun across our state.