Ren Ellis – San Miguel de Allende – Mexico – Fashion

Rebecca “Bekka” Fass and John Vogel

Bekkas flagship store in San Miguel de Allende, John Adam Leather  Boutique, is a “must go” destination to  a legion of dedicated followers. Her bags alone are at once a stand alone fashion statement, as well as practical and timeless. She presents in her gallery a stunning collection of beautiful hand tooled leatherwear fusing the traditional craftsmanship of Mexico with the sophisticated savvy of her East Coast roots.  She first honed her Southwest design capabilities with Ren Ellis.

Bekka met Ren Ellis in the early part of 2000 in Lake Chapala, Mexico. Both had moved there to retire. Ren was a leather wear designer with a successful career. He had won the prestigious “Texas Leather Designers” award, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art had displayed one of Ren’s braided and fringed jackets as wearable art. Bekka had retired from working in the medical field as a consulting and marketing person. She also owned a Asian Art Gallery, which took her on shopping trips around the world. During which time she volunteered for Mother Theresa in India & worked with Jane Goodall  in Africa. 

Bekka was impressed by Ren’s ability, especially after he hand made her a leather jacket as a present. They decided to become business partners at that time. Bekka apprenticed under Ren and quickly learned his art and understood the quality of his craftsmanship. While his market place was mainly the Southwest, Bekka soon developed her own line and introduced her work  to New York City & Miami, where her classic pieces were infused  with the influence of the haute couture beyond the Southwest. Partnering with Ren Ellis offered her a close study into design and she teamed this with her business background. It lead her to search meticulously for the highest grade manufacturing in Mexico at the most competitive prices. 

Ren had always made custom jackets & gone to markets. Bekka started a web site business of their designs. When they moved to San Miguel they opened the first Ren Ellis Leather Boutique.  Ren then stepped down from the business 3 years ago and Bekka continued in the leather business and brought in her son John Vogel to the business.  Changing the name to John Adam Leather Boutique & bringing in other local artists. She stopped the Southwest & biker line that Ren was known for completely and moved to high fashion and bringing past vintage styling and Mexican fashion into the line. 

Together Bekka and her son have incorporated the traditional hand-crafted Mexican look into her line.  She travels back and forth from the gallery in San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico and the factories in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Designing and overseeing the production of her leather designs. The factories are all small family run that hand make every item, whether a jacket or a purse. She uses factories in Guadalajara as they use imported leather and the tanning process is far superior to her.

When traveling in the US, she spends time in Vintage Clothing Stores finding ideas from the past to incorporate into her line. In Mexico she does the same seeing crafts and reworking them into her line.

Her favorite medium is tooling. Which is becoming more and more rare to be hand made. Most companies that sell tooled leather use machines now and everything is stenciled, like we all did in the 60’s with Tandy leather kits. Bekkas  are done totally by hand by a artist. She is now working on a new line that is tooled and hand painted. The toolers are artists in their own right. Then the pieces go to a artist who hand paints over the tooling and has his own ideas.  It is sometimes hard to get them to follow her art. Which is why she has to constantly travel to Guadalajara and oversee the production.  If there is fringe, it is hand cut. Lacing is all hand laced. Bekka  designs each button, concho and finding. All her  leather jackets are made with high grade lambskin, not cowhide or pigskin. Even her suede jackets are inside out lamb instead of pig split.

Living in San Miguel and being steps from the Jardin. Has brought a large following of loyal American customers.  Many own small Boutiques in the US and have bought wholesale from Bekka.  She has also done private branding for companies in the US.  But she cannot tell the names of the companies as their labels are on the products.

Sometimes opportunities knock on your door, that are out of your particular experience.  It is just being at the right place at the right moment and going with it. San Miguel is a magical place that makes artists of all of us. Did it become a community of artists as they moved here, or did San Miguel bring the artist out in all of us here. There seems to be so many talented artists here doing all kinds of art. For Bekka it is wearable art. To prove her success, her handbags and accessories have graced the wardrobe of many a fashion doyenne, from San Miguel de Allende to New York, LA, Miami and London. Bekka finds it a compliment when she finds one of her designs being copied by another designer. It still shocks her  when she walks by a store and sees her designs there by another designer.