Mary Wing To

Mary Wing To is a multidisciplinary artisan who aims to revive traditional leathercraft techniques in modern design. She gained a Distinction in her Master’s degree in Fashion Design and Technology at the London College of Fashion and trained as a bespoke coat maker on Savile Row. Her love for horses led Mary to turn her hand to leather craftsmanship. She gained a City & Guilds qualification as a saddler and began working as an apprentice under the Queen's Master Saddler and Harness Maker at the Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace.Mary has won several international awards for her leather creations including the City and Guilds Lions award for creative craftsperson of the year in 2010. In 2012 she was awarded the QEST bursary to study traditional whipmaking, an endangered craft in the UK. Mary is the director of her own brands Mary Wing To and “Whip in Hand”, as well as the head of Atelier UK for the iconic fashion house Chanel.

Working in modern design, Mary explores and combines her unique skill set, which includes leather sculpting, tailoring, moulding, braiding, plaiting, carving, dyeing and hand-stitching, to create dramatic and sculptural pieces. 

Inside every whip handle that Mary makes, there is a rolled cutting of a newspaper – The Times – showing the date when the whip was created, to be discovered in years to come. This is something Mary learnt from her master, and she continues this unique tradition in his honour.

Masterful Gestures Exhibition