What Is a One-Piece Leather Wallet?

A one-piece wallet is a wallet cut from a single panel of leather and folded into shape, with no lining, no glued layers, and as few seams as possible. Where an ordinary bifold is six or more pieces of leather and fabric stitched and glued together, a one-piece wallet is one. That is why it is thinner, why it breaks in faster, and why there is almost nothing on it that can come apart. The NO. 88 is Arandjela's one-piece wallet: a single cut of full grain vegetable-tanned leather, folded, and saddle-stitched by hand in Chicago.

Why fewer pieces means a longer life

Wallets fail at the seams and the glue lines. Linings peel, card slots stretch and tear at the stitching, the fold cracks where two layers rub. Take away the layers and you take away the places it can fail. A one-piece wallet has one fold, one line of stitching, and nothing hidden inside it. When the leather is full grain and vegetable-tanned, that single panel gets stronger and better looking as it ages, so the wallet you carry at year five is the same object at year one, only darker and softer.

What it holds

The NO. 88 carries four to six cards and four to six folded bills, respectively. It is meant for the front pocket. Arandjel does not carry a wallet in his back pocket, because a man who sits on his wallet all day is asking for a bent spine and a bent card. It holds what you use and refuses what you do not.

How the NO. 88 is made

The panel is cut by hand from the most pristine portion of a Tuscan hide. Card slots are cut into the panel itself, not sewn on. The edges are beveled, sanded, and burnished with water and wax. One line of stitching closes it, saddle-stitched with two needles and a single length of French linen thread, so that a single broken stitch cannot unravel the rest. The seraphim crest is pressed into the front. Start to finish, it takes an afternoon.

What to look for in any one-piece wallet

The leather should be full grain, and ideally vegetable-tanned, because a single panel has no lining to hide a weak hide. The stitching should be saddle stitch, visibly hand-done, with a slight diagonal to each stitch. The edges should be burnished, not painted. And it should be a little stiff when new. A one-piece wallet that is soft on day one has been thinned too far and will not hold its shape.

Breaking it in

Carry it. Two weeks with your cards in it and the slots will settle. Do not stretch them by hand and do not overload it to speed things up. It will get there.

The NO. 88 One Piece Wallet is made to order in Chicago and ships wrapped in butcher paper, tied with suede lace, sealed with the seraphim.