Since 1991
In 1991, Vafa Tahernia opened a small leather booth at the Festival Flea Market Mall with a simple idea: you should be able to choose your own buckle, choose your own strap, and walk away with a belt that is yours and nobody else's. She did the buying herself, at the leather expos, and she was particular about it. She would not settle for poor leather or poor craftsmanship, so she walked past the cheap hides and sought out the workshops and tanneries that still did things the right way.
About three years in, she met Mike Pouran. They married, and from that point on the shop was the two of them — one counter, two people, and a list of suppliers that would take thirty-five years to build. Italy for the belt straps. India, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand for the rest. They went back to the same workshops year after year, which is how a booth at a flea market ended up carrying leather that most stores never see.
Belts were the beginning, and they never stopped being the heart of it. Dress buckles and western buckles. Crocodile, python, lizard, ostrich, and plain smooth Italian leather. Mike would cut the strap to your size at the counter while you waited, and if a favourite belt stretched or a buckle worked loose, he would fix that too. Then came wallets, because customers asked. Then handbags, briefcases, hats, and the western side of the shop, for the same reason.
For nearly thirty-five years the booth stayed exactly where it started. Neighbours' children grew up and came back with children of their own. Regulars drove in from across the county for a belt they could not find anywhere else. What Vafa and Mike were really building, one belt at a time, was a reputation: that if it came from Executive Leather, it was the real thing, and it would last.
In 2025, after nearly thirty-five years at the Festival Flea Market, the shop moved to The Mall at Wellington Green. The counter came with it, and so did the buckle case, the strap wall, and the two people behind them. The idea has not changed either. Pick a buckle, pick a strap, and we will build it to your size — the way we have since 1991.
