The Hands Behind Every ADA Belt

Meet Leo and Luciana, two of the women who help turn my ideas into the belts you wear.

Behind every finished belt are real hands, practiced skills, and people I’m grateful to know.

ADA Collection’s belts are handmade in Argentina. Leo, our longtime belt producer, and her family team make many of them, with most new designs passing through her hands first. Behind the scenes, Designer & Production Manager Luciana coordinates design specifications, supplier relationships, and quality standards. Together, they help us produce thoughtfully, in small batches.

A handbag strap changed everything

In my previous story, I shared how my fashion journey began with handbags. But it was a boutique owner in Laguna Beach who helped me see where that journey could go next.

While I was showing her a handbag, she took off its strap, wrapped it around a mannequin, and said:

“This is what I need. A belt.”

That moment changed the direction of my career and helped save my business.

The country was going through an economic crisis. A belt offered a way for a woman to refresh what she already owned, giving the clothes in her closet another life.

I had the idea. Now I needed someone who could make it.

One boutique owner saw a belt where I saw a handbag strap. That idea changed ADA’s direction.

How did I find the people who make ADA belts?

I went back to the mall and found a kiosk called “Belt World.”

I asked for a contact, made a call, and soon found myself meeting Sebastian and his father, who had started the belt company.

That introduction also brought me to Leo, their head production manager.

Looking back, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to meet people who took a chance on me and helped shape ADA. Leo is one of those people.

And all these years later, she is still making our belts.

Meet Leo: a skill passed through a family

Leo began working for Sebastian’s father as a teenager. She has spent decades developing her craft and teaching it to her sisters, daughters, and other family members.

Today, she and her family team continue to make our belts by hand.

Meet Leo and her team. The craft she has spent decades learning is a skill she continues to share with the women in her family.

We work with a few other suppliers, too, but most of our new products and designs go through Leo’s hands first.

There is something special about knowing that the person helping bring a new idea to life carries so much experience, and that she has shared that knowledge with the women around her.

When you wear an ADA belt, you are wearing the result of skills people have spent years learning and passing on.

Meet Luciana: the woman connecting the details

Another woman I feel incredibly lucky to work with is Luciana Sabsay, or Lu.

She is a designer by education and a natural problem solver. Trying to explain everything she does in one sentence is almost impossible.

Luciana Sabsay, our designer and natural problem solver, connects the creative ideas with the details that bring them to life.

Lu found the tannery that became central to our work on more sustainable materials. She manages supplier negotiations, organizes design specifications for Leo and her team, and helps uphold the quality standards we expect before products reach our customers.

Her work connects my design ideas with the practical details needed to make them happen.

But what I appreciate most is how much she cares. About our supplier relationships. About the materials we choose. About the quality of the finished belt.

Leo and Lu are my dream team.

They make the magic happen, even when the request is a little more complicated than it first sounds.

Small batches, sometimes very big challenges

We work with boutiques and major retailers, including Anthropologie and Nordstrom. I appreciate every customer, but some production deadlines give our dream team a particularly interesting challenge.

If Leo and Lu are reading this, they are probably chuckling and rolling their eyes.

“Interesting challenge” may be an understatement.

Meeting those deadlines while maintaining our standards takes coordination, skill, and strong relationships. Those are things I’ve come to value enormously over the years.

What does thoughtful production mean at ADA?

One of our choices is to produce in small batches.

Our goal is to avoid making large quantities that end up with nowhere to go. Smaller runs help us limit excess inventory and think carefully about what we put into production.

We produce in small batches, with the goal of limiting excess inventory and thinking carefully about each design we make.

We also ask how a design will fit into a woman’s life.

How would Leo and the women on her team wear it? How would Lu and the women in their 50s on her team style it? What about the women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s across our company?

We have quite a few decades covered.

Those conversations matter because we want to make something women will reach for again. A belt that works with what they already own and helps them feel good wearing it.

That was the opportunity the boutique owner saw when she wrapped a handbag strap around a mannequin. It still guides us today.

Different decades, different wardrobes. We ask how the women on our own team would wear a design before it becomes part of yours.

There is a person behind your belt

As we celebrate our business anniversary this month, I want to introduce you to more of the people who have helped build ADA.

Leo and Luciana are two of them. Their skill, care, and commitment are part of what you receive when you choose one of our belts.

My dream team. I’m so grateful for the care Leo and Lu bring to ADA, and for the relationships we’ve built along the way.

My hope is that when you put it on, you feel confident and beautiful, and remember that real hands helped make it.

There are women behind it who love what they do and want you to feel good, too.

Consider that a little positive energy, sent from our team to you.

With love,
Ada

By Ada Deferrari, Founder and Designer of ADA Collection.

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