
Since 2022, Weekend Max Mara’s Pasticcino Bag embarked on a world tour, exploring local crafts and traditions, setting off from its native Milan, and then moving to Venice. The latest stop on the Pasticcino Bag World Tour takes us to Spain — a country where craftsmanship is stitched into the cultural fabric.
Named after the Italian word for “small pastry,” the Pasticcino pouch was first introduced in 2016 and has been in permanent rotation ever since. With its clasp-fastening style reminiscing 1920s evening purses, the bag has seen endless alterations in colour, style, and materials.
The third leg of the tour follows previous iterations in Paris and Kyoto. For Autumn/Winter 2025–26, the Italian brand pays homage to the artisanal legacies of Córdoba and Toledo, unveiling a limited-edition Pasticcino Bag collection steeped in leather-working tradition and ancient metal artistry.
This fourth chapter, dubbed Spanish Heritage, places the spotlight on two pillars of local craft. The premium leather comes courtesy of Cuero Ghademés, a Córdoba-based atelier founded in 2001 by Rafael Varo Atalaya, a master of Cordovan embossing. Known for his ability to modernise centuries-old practices without losing their soul, Varo’s leather is soft, richly textured, and finished using wooden plates he personally designs. Each bag — numbered and in small size — is hand-coloured and swabbed, making no two pieces alike. The colour palette nods to the Spanish landscape with a variety of hues such as deep coffee, olive, cordoba blue and warm cuoio.
Adding a luminous counterpoint to the earthy leather, the bag’s iconic sphere closures are transformed through “damascening,” a rare metal inlay technique born in al-Andalus. Crafted by Manufacturas Anframa in Toledo — a family-run workshop that has championed this art since 1970 — the gold-on-black spheres are miniature feats of design. Each one undergoes a multi-phase process involving engraving, inlaying with gold and silver, then sealing with lacquer to preserve their intricate brilliance. It’s ornamentation with a story — and one that happens to shine.
Inside, the bags are lined with painterly motifs — florals, graphics, horses — and finished with a red dustbag, a wink to Spain’s national hue.

Discover more here.
photography. Weekend Max Mara
words. Gennaro Costanzo