Hasta La Ideas

The ongoing quest to design the most minimal wallet ever is something of a race to the bottom: my colleague hipstomp, for one, has resorted to using a Japanese train pass holder, and we see so many Kickstarter projects that (for better or for worse) we have to pass on some of the more worthy ones. At least one of my friends has opted to forgo leather or PVC for perhaps the most minimal system of all: a humble but practical rubber band.

Designer Chieh Ting Huang does him one better: Nothing Fancy is a collection of seamless, stitchless leather accessories—a wallet, a coin purse, an iPhone case and a passport holder—that consist of single pieces of leather that are cut into foldable patterns and secured with a simple elastic.

Nothing Fancy, aka the non-stitched minimalist wallet, is the first product in a range of everyday accessories reimagined for a contemporary lifestyle. The wallet has its origins in the classic image of the bundle of banknotes held together by a rubber band. The mission was to create a design with the minimal amount of materials, simplifying the object to its basic function.

Each wallet is created from a single piece of leather, requiring no stitching—shortening the time it takes to produce each one and saving on materials. The custom-made rubber bands make placing banknotes and credit cards into the pockets easy yet maintains the security of a traditional stitched wallet. The use of minimal material also reduces the thickness otherwise found in a traditional wallet.

(more…)