Altruism – particularly as it pertains to social and environmental responsibility – has always been at the core of Tina Lutz’s DNA. It’s part and parcel of the the designer’s personal and professional ethos, which has manifested itself throughout an impressive career that now spans three-plus decades, the lion’s share of which she spent in New York.

Based in her native Germany for the past six years, Lutz has channeled her creativity into the Lutz Morris luxury leather goods brand, taking a unique and inspiring approach to building a business around three pillars: Supporting Artisans; Responsible Production; Giving Back.

Speaking with her – via Zoom, with Lutz from Berlin – one can’t help but be inspired by her candor on sustainability, the environment, greenwashing, and luxury today. Moving back to Germany not only reinforced her views, it amplified them.

“Having grown up in Germany, recycling and taking care of the environment was ingrained in my education,” Lutz says. “I remember moving to New York in 1992 and having to throw a glass bottle, papers and all garbage into the same bin. I thought, ‘This feels really odd, I can’t do this’ because recycling has always been part of my life. It may be a German thing, but you never want to be wasteful with anything.”

The Lutz Morris website elaborates, “We believe in Slow Fashion—everything we make is made consciously and ethically with locally sourced components, focusing on craftsmanship, quality, and longevity.”

As she was contemplating her new brand, she wanted to take a different approach that brought together her conscious approach with artisanship.

“A lot of my values followed me my whole career, but what I was able to do here is looking at where all the components come from,” Lutz explains. “I was not looking for Lutz Morris. It found me. It started the first Christmas in Berlin, when my husband gave me this beautiful leather box to put my pencils in, which was mounted on a frame. I loved the construction, and it was made in Germany.”

The idea may have been sparked, but its realization proved to be more complicated. Germany strongly focuses on New Media and technology, but unlike France and Italy, for example, preserving local artisanship isn’t a priority, and the factories that still operate are often in poor, decrepit condition.

“I was already so in love with this idea, I traveled throughout Germany, researching leather manufacturers, tanneries, suppliers for chains and any hardware,” she says. “I really wanted to create a product that lasts for years, not for seasons. I didn’t want logos. I wanted something that was clean and classic. I wanted something that didn’t shout, ‘look at my bag.’ It was something more obscure and beautiful.”

And luxurious.

“To me, luxury is to buy something that lasts for a long time and that doesn’t go out of fashion,” Lutz explains. “Luxury is to know how things are made and where components come from. That is so important because there is so much ‘greenwashing’ going on.”

And this is why she refrains from using “sustainable” to describe her brand. As her website puts it, “A lot of other brands would call what we do sustainable. But we believe that producing things will inevitably leave a footprint and therefore is not sustainable. This is why we prefer to call what we do ‘responsible production.’ To us, this feels more honest.”

“I don’t think there is sustainability in what we do,” Lutz says. “In fashion, it doesn’t exist. The moment you produce, you produce something that will eventually end up in a landfill. I hope that my bags won’t end up in a landfill for decades, which is why we offer refurbishing and repairing so they last for a long time.

“Every single step along the way has to be as responsible as possible,” she adds, explaining that every step along the supply chain is as responsible as it can be, from finding manufacturers within close range to cut shipping mileage to using hides left over from the dairy industry to gold-certified tanneries, meaning that all elements within it must be gold certified. The tannery she uses, for example, has its own water treatment plant, which means the water used from the town for the process can be returned to the town.

Something you won’t find in the collection – at least not at this time – is vegan leather. “To this day, it’s mostly plastic. It’s crude oil,” she says. “Even if you have vegan elements, you still need plastic to keep it all together.”

On the business front, she sells both direct-to-consumer and via wholesale, and since 2020, she has focused on drops versus seasons and working with retailers who don’t mark down her bags online. “Since we narrowed down our wholesale partners, our online business has grown so much,” she said.

As for the philanthropic element, for every bag sold, $10 will be donated to Christy Turlington Burns’ charity Every Mother Counts. Lutz and Turlington have known each other since Tina served as executive designer for the model’s Nuala line produced by Puma.

“Women are so important to every social structure,” Lutz explains. “Sadly there are still so many women dying from childbirth complications, especially in the States, where there is a shockingly high birth mortality rate, which spiked under Trump because a lot of immigrant women were too scared to get medical help when there were complications.”

What does the future hold for Lutz Morris?

“We are now ready to grow,” she says. “I have so many ideas. I would love to do more collaborations, expand the product range, and go into home more. I would love to have a store.”

She has her eyes set on Milan, both as a potential next base for her family and the location for the first Lutz Morris boutique. Just don’t expect to find Tina herself – as someone whose philosophy is the antithesis of excess — on the floor.

“I feel like I am the worst salesperson,” Lutz says, with an infectious smile, “because I always tell people, ‘You don’t need that.’”

Fair enough, but ‘need’ is one thing, ‘Want’ is another – and we can never have enough of Tina and Lutz Morris!