Hira Siddiqui

Hira runs buying and quality control at Elixir. In practice that means she decides which bags we stock, opens the cartons when they land, and pulls anything that will not survive a year of real use before it reaches the shop page.

Most of what she knows about handbags came from returns. A bag can look excellent in a supplier photo, pass a quick check on arrival, and still come back in eight weeks with a strap tearing away from the body or a zip that has given up. Tracking why those failures happen, across enough shipments, teaches you which details predict them. Stitch density at the stress points. Whether hardware is riveted or glued. Whether a lining is sewn in or stuck on.

She writes the journal pieces that deal with materials, construction and what to look for before you hand over money. The aim is that a reader can walk into any shop in the country, or stand at their own gate with a delivery rider waiting, and judge a bag without needing to trust the person selling it.

She is based in Karachi and works with our suppliers and delivery partners across Pakistan.