Salty Western’s Rustic Leather Creations

Meet your new fair-leather friends.

February 28, 2017

Natalie Schack,

Photo Credit: Alana Spencer (Instagram: @coconutcomradery)

It’s a classic, typical love story: Girl meets cowboy. Girl moves to a 35,000-acre cattle ranch on the Big Island and takes up the life of a paniolo. Girls rides into the sunset with her Stetson-rocking boo.

Er, OK, maybe Taira Cran’s story isn’t quite typical, but the way Island fashionistas will fall head over heels for this cowgirl’s leather accessories is.

One day, while adjusting to her new home on the range, Cran found herself fiddling with a spare piece of leather. Inspired by the saddle-crafting taking place all around her on the ranch, and the gorgeous way this unique material ages, she let her creative juices flow with what first started out as a hobby, and then blossomed into a business called Salty Western.

Now based in a studio in Waialua—an O‘ahu paniolo paradise—Cran hand cuts, dyes, stamps and molds clutches, sack bags and passport covers. The results are downright stunning, one-of-a-kind statement pieces with real Old-West-meets-Old-Hawai‘i charm. Chunky Wild-West-style type marches across passport booklets with the phrases “Go Live,” “Holoholo” or “Stay Wild,” while a delicate seashell design sits on a raw-cut mini sack bag in clean cream. Blue stitching on a foldover purse gives off American Southwest vibes, while a beautiful sketch of a bird of paradise adorns both a soft-camel-colored pouch and a richly hued red-mocha number.

Each piece of leather is particularly selected by Cran for its uniqueness, so the range of shades and mottling vary from item to item and will change as the leather ages naturally. In other words, it’s the perfect medium for a wanderlusting, adventure-seeking creative who’s all about that sea of change and seeking out the new-new. Look for a new line of collabs from her soon, inspired by her community and, of course, the salt-water-surrounded “wild west” she calls home.

We know we’ll be checking it out—wild horses couldn’t keep us from it.

$56–$200, saltywestern.com.