Rance and Phoebe Pope definitely know how to brand a company provocatively. They started Needless Society, their handmade accessory line, in September 2016 as a sideline. Together for three years, they got married in May and moved to Maine from Baltimore a week later, holing up in a cabin in Brownville to cut and sew leather goods from wallets to camera straps and satchels.
Poetic, aspirational images featuring Maine scenery began appearing on their Instagram feed right away, piquing our interest. We called the couple up to find out what that name really means, where they fit in with the Slow Fashion movement and how they’re navigating their new state.
CRAFTY COUPLE: Rance has made his career in the leather business and was managing a store for leather crafters, Tandy Leather, in Baltimore when the couple met. Phoebe was studying photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art. They enjoyed crafting together as a couple, as a hobby. “We really liked the collaborative look and aesthetic,” Rance said. They started showing their work to friends and family, who “really pushed us to start making an Etsy (account),” he added. They were “overwhelmed” by the response. “About three months later we were like, we can quit and do this full time.”
Handmade leather wallets at Rance and Phoebe Pope’s workshop.
WHY MAINE? Baltimore was fine, but as independent producers, “we realized we could live anywhere in the country we wanted to and we started looking at maps, real estate and where we thought we would be happiest.” Maine fit the bill. “Most of our products and designs are inspired by the outdoors,” he said. “Maine felt like an appropriate place for it.” After spending the summer and early fall in a friend’s cabin in Brownville, they decided to come back out of the woods. They picked Lewiston, which Rance says fits with the millennial tendency to move into urban areas filled with old factories (he used to live in Detroit). “We want to go back to the roots of what America was.”
As of yet, they don’t have a brick-and-mortar store, but are setting up a workshop in their apartment and have a display up in the Hive Artisan Co-op above Forage Market in downtown Lewiston. Earlier this month they hosted a Boots and Brew session at the Hive, teaching people how to winterize their boots (while drinking Baxter beer). “The people in Lewiston have been really welcoming,” Phoebe said.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? One day when they were still living in Baltimore, Rance sent Phoebe a text with a photograph of a stamp he’d put on some leather during his lunch break. It had the points of a compass, with an N and an S at the top and bottom. Phoebe texted back that she really liked it, but what would the letters stand for? “Once he got home, we just Googled words that began with N and S.” The combination of words they came up with, “needless” and “society,” seemed to represent what they were after.
“The whole point of Needless Society is that we are making a product that is going to last the rest of society,” Rance said. “Rather than the purse of the season. We want eventually to fulfill all of a society’s needs.” Lofty goal. But yes, the name does raise questions. Ones to be answered by the consumer, he said. “We like our brand name because when people ask us what it means, we ask them what they think it means.”
Rance Pope sews leather with thread from Maine Thread Company in Lewiston.
THE NEW FASHION FORWARD: Rance said Slow Fashion is a good term for what he and Phoebe do, since they make everything by hand and make it to last a lifetime, but he’s conscious that leather raises questions. “Really, all the leather we use are byproducts of the meat industry,” he said. “It’s mostly cowhide, with the exception of bison, which are grown strictly for their hides. I used to tell people, ‘If McDonald’s stopped serving hamburgers I would be out of business overnight.’ ” The justification is, “We are really, if anything, following in the way of our ancestors and making sure that every byproduct gets used.”
The Popes have been trying to buy all the leather locally, at Tasman Leather in Hartland. “All of our thread we get from Maine Thread Company. Whenever we are able to source our materials locally, we do. We try to support American industry.”
SUCCESS STORY: If Needless Society makes it “big,” like say, a Sea Bags, how would the Popes hold onto their ideals? Do they even want that? “Most name brands and big brands, they all start out well with right intentions and build quality products, but eventually they sell out,” Rance said. “As far as our long-term goal, are we okay if we have to stop doing everything by hand? We kind of go back and forth on that a lot.” But for now, it’s by hand in an apartment in Lewiston. (If you want to check out their goods in Portland, Needless Society will be part of the annual Picnic holiday sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Portland Company, 58 Fore St.)
MARRIED LIFE: Running a startup together can’t be easy, even for newlyweds, can it? “People actually ask us, ‘Do you fight all the time?’ ” Phoebe said. The answer is no. “We’ve been together for three years. We get along really, really well,” she said. “We have a lot of the same taste in things so it works out. When either of us are coming up with an idea for something, we’ll ask each other, ‘Do you like this?’ And one of us will say, ‘Maybe rounded corners would be better.’ Sometimes one of us has the idea to make it look more perfect.”
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