RAW by RAW comes with a rich tailoring history spanning four generations. The Balsim family came to Melbourne, Australia in 1976 from eastern Europe and continued the tradition of one generation teaching the next from their modest family home in St Kilda, initially specialising in Men's leather jackets and woollen coats.
In 2005 RAW by RAW was born from an idea of a Ladies raw-edged leather jacket, vest and belt, presented to boutiques with no marketing or imagery - just innovative design and a newly created 'crinkled' effect leather and refined tailoring – going to market very 'RAW'. The capsule collection performed so well in boutiques that within two months a whole collection was created and the brand appropriately named as RAW by RAW Australia.
Fabrication & Sustainability
All our leather is sourced from the finest Italian leather tanneries that have been tanning leather as family businesses for generations, from Solofra in the renowned Avelino region known for tanning leather since Roman times.
All tanneries are quality assured and employ ethical production principles at all steps of the leather production process.
To reduce wastage and maximise sustainability, our leather is a by-product of the food industry.
We are proud to work with Italian leather suppliers endorsed by the ‘Unione Nazionale Industria Conceria’ (‘National Union of Tanneries of Italy’) and all our tanneries have ‘ISO’ accreditation.
Shop RAW by RAW from Sonsie Boutique
With four generations of leather crafting and tailoring experience, RAW by RAW is a proud family business dating back to 1976. Tracing back to our Eastern European roots, RAW by RAW still lovingly continue to hand-craft all its leather garments in small production runs using traditional leather-crafting and tailoring methods in our Glenhuntly workshop in suburban Melbourne.