After walking through The Met's Art & Armor exhibit a few years ago, Satoko Nakagawa immediately felt inspired by samurai armor from the ancient Japanese Edo period. Lamellar armor, a type of armor where plates of iron, leather, or bronze are laced into horizontal rows, eventually became the focus of her thesis at FIT. It won her multiple prizes from various accessories councils, which helped jumpstart her handbag label Hatori. You can definitely see the armor reference Satoko's designs - small rectangular pieces of Italian vegetable tanned leather are layered and laced together using Japanese braided rayon cording that is specifically produced for samurai armors. Each Hatori bag takes over 20 hours to finish from start to finish in Satoko's Greenpoint, Brookyn studio. I mean, if that's not dedication to her craft, I'm not sure what is. I can't see wait to see what will come next for this incredibly talented designer. From the looks of it, the introduction of leather woven visors is coming soon . . . YES.