Blogs

After seeing my dad off on his return to Melbourne, Australia it was time to start designing my summer collection! When I begin to design a collection for a new season I always spend some time thinking about new and innovative techniques and exploring new ideas. Inspiration comes in so many different forms, from elements of nature to vintage lock closures and the natural coloring of animals and foods. 

All kinds of things inspire me, from architectural elements like the unique shape of an asymmetrical building to the details on the hem of a coat. I pin all of these images to the walls of my studio for times like these! The very start of my design process entails going through all of the inspiration I’ve gathered and organizing it into concept boards. This gets the creative juices flowing!

My next step is sketching. I spent hours upon hours in my design room surrounded by mountains of inspirations, colors and leathers that I have collected from all over the world. I turned my music on and began sketching, just letting everything that comes to mind translate onto the paper. As a designer, I spend a lot of my time talking to women about what they want in a bag and what they feel is missing in the world of handbags. As I design, I consult all of the feedback I have received from women over the years.

I laid out all of my sketches and decided which ones I felt are most unique and inspiring for the season while maintaining my focus on ergonomics and functionality. Every season I like to introduce new shapes and build new cool hardware. Fashion is about innovation, always inventing and creating “the next big thing”.

Once I had finished sketching out my ideas and choosing the strongest pieces to use for my collection, it was time to pick my color palette! Deciding on which colors to use for my collection is a very important step in the design process that determines the wear-ability of the bag. I always design bags that can be worn year round and develop colors that can go with any outfit during any season. For this summer collection I chose shades of mint, soft greys, vintage metallic, and bold blues.

Next, I create my own prints, a unique process that allows me to truly customize every element of my collection. I create my own digital artwork of patterns that I illustrate to reflect both my color palette and the season. After I created the patterns I printed them on soft, leathers. For this collection, I focused on reinventing reptile prints in different color ways.

Developing my leathers is one of my favorite steps. I work one-on-one with tanneries to create the most innovative leathers to style into my collection. Keeping with my inspiration I create textures that speak to the story I am weaving through. For this season I created soft, pliable leathers with my custom prints, metallic leathers to use as accents and neutral matte leathers to work into the body of the bags.

After a long, yet exhilarating process, the designs for my summer collection were ready to go to production! Now it’s time for me to build samples and work out the operative details of each bag. From the handle size to the clasp function, each bag needs to be examined in detail. Once they’re built I like to give them a test drive and wear them around. I have to make sure they are just right! I can’t wait to show you what I have been working on! 

I’m off to construct the collection, but before I go, what function would YOU like to see in a handbag?