Sydnie Banks

In a quiet studio tucked inside her Edmond, Oklahoma home, artist and designer Sydnie Harrison Peebles is redefining what it means to create a handbag. Through her one-of-a-kind label, Sydnie Banks, Peebles brings forth extraordinary, deeply personal works of art sculpted entirely by hand, and rooted in memory, intention, and legacy.

“These are not just handbags,” Peebles said. “This is not a brand. It’s my life story.”

Raised in Utah in a family where craftsmanship and artistry were a way of life — her father, H. Kreg Harrison, was a bronze sculptor and collector of vintage leathers — Peebles grew up surrounded by tactile creativity. “Do what you love, and you’ll never feel like you work a day in your life,” he told her. That ethos would carry Peebles from art school at BYU Idaho to bespoke boot-making apprenticeships and ultimately to the meticulous world of hand-stitched leather handbags.