Boyy is an international brand launched in 2006 in New-York by Jesse Dorsey and Wannasiri Kongman.
In 13 years, the brand opened two flagship stores in Bangkok and Copenhagen and has multi brand retailers all around the world (Moda Operandi, Selfridges, Room 29, Rare Market, Net-A-Porter and Bloomingdales to name a few).
The goal of Boyy is to offer a wide range of accessories (sunglasses, scarves, hats), shoes and handbags that could balance feminity and masculinity, “sort of a yin-yang thing” as the brand says itself, which creates sophisticated and yet timeless items of a strong sensibility. All of the products are highly recognizable because of (or thanks to?) their big buckles that appear on almost every handbag or pair of shoes.
What makes the brand even more recognizable is the fact that the two designers use all different kinds of colors (bright, dark, light, pastels) and are not only sticking to colors that “works with everything”. When there isn’t a buckle on a product, you’ll find an eyelet ornament on your leather item.
Because yes, all the creations are made of leather (calf, lambskin, rex rabbit fur and more) and that is the main issue we could be pointing with the brand. Boyy doesn’t offer any vegan content and that prevents them from conquering the market of vegan products and therefore, to get attention from the vegan people out there. It’s unfortunate to see that a brand old of 13 years and who is claiming to “formulate a fresh and forward-looking interpretation of luxury” is not able to go and search to create the same beautiful items that they already offer in a vegan alternative (and it’s not like there isn’t a lot of vegan leathers to use!)
To me, launching a vegan line could truly be the yin-yang of their brand as they would draw more attention to their beautiful designs and looks while being more available to everyone looking for a unique accessory, although the goal of the brand may be to offer only luxurious and beautiful real leather, in which case it could be great to go public about the fact that they won’t ever sell vegan products, so that we could avoid falling in love with a product to never be able to buy it if we want it to be vegan.
