Ksenia Khelman shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Ksenia, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
For me, it happens when the world goes quiet.
When I put my phone on silent, turn on an old movie I’ve seen so many times I barely need to watch it, and let my hands move without a plan.
Not an order. Not a piece for a new collection.
Just creating for the sake of creating.
It feels like those strange little doodles we draw absent-mindedly on paper.
I do the same, but with leather and thread. I’m not thinking about trends, or how to make it profitable, or if anyone will like it.
I don’t care about anything outside in that moment.
It’s just me and the process.
Shapes appear, pieces come together, and for a while nothing exists except the rhythm of the work.
And it’s funny — some of my worst designs and some of my best ones were born exactly this way. So it’s always interesting to see how it will turn out.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Ksenia Khelman. I’m a bag designer and maker based in San Francisco, and I run Khelman Studio and KB Bag Design Academy. I create leather bags one at a time and teach people how to make their own bags from scratch, even if they’ve never held a needle before.
My journey into bag design started when my favorite bag fell apart and I couldn’t find anything like it anywhere. So I decided to remake it myself—and accidentally opened a whole new world. Since then, my work has grown from a tiny corner of my home to a full studio, and now I help students all over the world create bags they’re proud to carry.
What makes my brand special is the combination of craftsmanship and education. I care about professional construction, clean technique, and pieces made to last for years. I also care about people feeling capable and creative, not intimidated. I’m currently building an online school and developing courses and patterns that help anyone, anywhere, learn to design and sew bags with confidence.
My mission is simple: buy less, make better, and enjoy the process.
Bags carry our stories. I just help people shape them beautifully.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
When I was younger, I truly believed I needed someone else to be happy. I got married pretty young, and I became a loving pleaser who slowly disappeared. One day I realized I couldn’t even remember who I was anymore — what I liked, what I wanted, what colors I loved, what choices were actually mine.
By a very lucky coincidence, my grandmother gave me her old sewing machine. And that changed everything. I started sewing clothes for myself and rediscovering my identity piece by piece. What shapes feel like me? What colors make me feel alive? Who do I want to be when I get to choose freely?
Through creating, I found myself again. I started blossoming, trusting myself, and feeling strong enough to leave that relationship behind.
It taught me that happiness isn’t something you get from another person — it’s something you build inside yourself first.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me patience with myself, and an understanding that growth isn’t always pretty or inspiring. It’s often slow, uncomfortable, and full of doubt. When everything is going well, it’s easy to believe you’re strong. But when life falls apart a little — that’s when you discover who you really are.
Hard moments taught me to sit with discomfort instead of trying to escape it. To keep going even when there’s no clear result yet. To trust the process long before I could see any success.
It also taught me humility and empathy. When you’ve been at the bottom, you stop judging people who are struggling. You become kinder. You listen more. You understand that everyone is carrying something invisible.
And maybe the biggest lesson: suffering made me resourceful. When I had nothing, I learned to build something from whatever was in front of me — an old sewing machine, a piece of fabric, an idea. All my real breakthroughs happened there, not at the peaks.
Success never teaches that.
Success feels nice, but suffering is what shapes you.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
One of the biggest truths for me is that you have to build the life you want with your own hands. No one is coming to save you or fix things for you. We create our own happiness, our confidence, and our future by showing up every day, even in small steps.
Another truth is that things take time. Good things grow slowly. Craft taught me that — you can’t rush a clean stitch, or force leather to behave before it’s ready. The same goes for personal growth. If you want something real and lasting, you have to be patient and consistent.
And maybe the most important one: you can start over at any moment. You’re allowed to change direction, rewrite your story, and become someone new. You’re not stuck. You’re not late. You’re just in the middle of the process.
These are truths I live by more than I say out loud.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
For many years, I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do. What looked “right” from the outside. What felt safe and expected. I followed the script: be agreeable, be convenient, don’t take risks, don’t dream too loudly. I didn’t even notice when I stopped hearing my own voice underneath all the noise.
Now I’m doing what I was born to do — but I didn’t arrive here quickly or gracefully. I found it slowly, through curiosity, stubbornness, mistakes, and rebuilding myself piece by piece. It started with that old sewing machine and a quiet thought: What if I try? And then another: What if I can?
Today, creating bags, working with my hands, and helping others believe in themselves by building something real feels like home. It feels like the truest version of myself. Not perfect. Not always easy. But undeniably mine.
So yes — today I’m doing what I was born to do.
And I’m grateful I was brave enough to stop doing what I was told to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kb.bagdesign.academy/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khelmanbags
- Youtube: khelmanbags
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