The Nkari collection opens on the atelier's website this month. It is the winter collection for autumn 2026 — the warmest colour the house works in, on the pieces the house is most known for.
What Nkari means
Nkari is our name for the deep, considered brown that anchors this season. The word does not translate literally from Yoruba. It carries a feeling closer to the last hour of afternoon light through a wood-panelled room — warm, quiet, held. The leather itself is a hand-waxed calfskin finished at a small Italian tannery Daniel has worked with for four seasons now.
Why waxed brown, for this season. Because the years since 2020 have taught many of us to want objects that look like they have been thought about — objects that darken and deepen over time rather than lose their shine. Nkari is that quality made a material.
The three signatures
Nkari runs across the full atelier catalogue this season, but three pieces carry it most fully. If you are new to the house, these are where to look.
The Tobi backpack in Nkari
The atelier's most-carried piece rendered in the collection's anchor colour. Waxed calfskin body, matching Nkari straps, muted gold hardware. Sized for a fifteen-inch laptop and a working day. The lid strap and the shoulder straps darken visibly with use — by year two, this piece becomes yours.
The Aremu messenger in Nkari Lychee Brown
The saddle-flap messenger in the season's colour on lychee-embossed leather. The lychee grain catches the light differently to the waxed body of the Tobi — softer, more textured. The Aremu Nkari reads as evening piece by day and as day piece by evening. It is the one to reach for if you want a single bag for many rooms.
The Abimbola duffle in Nkari
The atelier's overnight duffle, cut in Nkari waxed leather with reinforced base panels for hold luggage weight. The colour deepens across the corners first — where the leather brushes the trolley handle, the airport chair, the taxi seat. By the third or fourth trip, the bag looks like it has been kept.
How to think about Nkari as a colour investment
Nkari is the atelier's warmest brown. It pairs with black. It pairs with cream. It pairs with olive and burgundy. It works with denim and with tailoring. If you are choosing your first piece from the house and cannot decide between black and something else — Nkari is the something else. It is the colour that will still look considered in five years, when trend colours have long moved past.
The runs open on the ninth
Each Nkari piece opens as a run of ten. Reserve your place with £5. When ten patrons commit to a run, the atelier begins the make; seven days later, your piece leaves London.
The Tobi Nkari and the Aremu Nkari Lychee Brown always fill first. If either matters to you, commit early rather than wait.
— The atelier