What's Old is New Again

I woke up this morning and went downstairs, grabbed my coffee and the Sunday Times and did my ritual coupon clipping.  To my surprise I found a "new" product made by Kool-Aid - Fizzing tablets!  Well if you are a person of my age you will certainly remember Fizzies a tablet that was dropped into water and provided a child with a carbonated sugary drink - this was a popular product in the 1960.  I'm sure that Flavor Straws will show up again very soon. The Kool-Aid product seems very much the same as the original with new packaging and different slogans and probably a slightly different formula.  I'm sure that you also see how everything seems to move in circles, including fashion.

I had a friend that really saved everything in her closet, she went completely against the rule to get rid of the clothes that you have not worn in a year. Her motto was "if you keep it long enough it will come back in style"  Well guess what she's right! (please don't save everything it's not necessary)

When I went into business with my Mom, she had been making the same style bag for about 32 years.  She had never changed the style. I also never changed the style. Remarkably it sells just the way it is.  However, I have added to the design, just as Kool-Aid added to the Fizzies of years gone by.  I now offer purse feet which is really great for a fabric handbag and we offer a magnetic snap as an additional security feature.  After seeing the Kool-Aid ad, I thought why not do a little additional tweaking, so I came up with a little tweak to our outside front pocket.  Nothing earth shattering just a little bitty something to make the Classic Toby Weston Handbag new again.

As designers and manufacturers of handmade handbags you just have to keep what's great and change it up occasionally, that way what's old will be new again.

Wendy Weston-Scott is owner of Toby Weston Handbags
www.tobywestonbags.com

So You Want to Make Handbags

So you've decided to start a handmade fabric handbag line.  You've always loved bags, in fact you have a great collection all your own.  But what style bags should you choose, you love so many styles. If that's not enough to think about there's always the type of fabrics, linings, inter-facings, hardware and on and on.  

Stop! 

Who is your customer going to be? Who do you want to cater to?  Knowing your customer is the first step. Don't kid yourself, you can't be everything to everybody. Focusing on a specific clientele will be a great help when you're making design and construction decisions.  Talk to the demographic that you are thinking of designing for, find out what they would like in a fabric purse. The more women you talk to the better. After all we know what we are looking for in our bags.  In my business, I know that I am making a custom handmade bag for a woman between the ages of 55 and 100.  Some of my women are still working but the majority are retired.  They are looking for comfort rather than the latest fashion statement. With many years behind us we know a great deal about our women because we listen.  As I've said before Stop!  Know your customer and then you can start making handbags.

Wendy is owner of  Toby Weston Handbags

Let's give fabric a hand!

The "hand" or the way the fabric feels to an individual, in my opinion is of the utmost importance to the success of a handbag's design and execution.  Of course, we all want to use a piece of fabric that is sturdy and suits the design of the bag. But by using our sense of touch we are assisted in selecting the perfect piece of goods.

You've all watched cooking shows on TV, especially the contests where the chefs run into a grocery store and are seen smelling the fish, inspecting the fruits and veggies and basically feeling, touching, looking and smelling everything that they want to use for the dish they intend to make.  Well the same can be said for how I find myself shopping for the fabrics that I use to make my handmade handbags.

I tend to use all my senses, short of smelling (although I have put an iron to some really funking smelly goods) when I go on my fabric buying trips. I find myself scanning until my eye catches either a color or texture that I find appealing.  Then the most important things happens, I reach out with my hands to run my fingers over the piece.  I want to feel the "hand" of the fabric.  Is it soft and supple, is it stiff and tight, does it feel rough or slick?

As important as the "hand" of the fabric is to me as a manufacturer, I find it just as important to my customer. Each woman has a her own personal feeling for the type of bag she wants to carry. There are women who will only carry a genuine leather bag, because they like how it wears and how it feels.  At the same time there is that special woman who loves a fabric bag and you can bet that when she opens up that box and takes out the bag she ordered she will look at it - and then she will run her hands across the fabric and she will be judging the "hand" of the fabric that you chose for that bag.  If you paid attention to the "hand" of that fabric from the start, then you'll have a success.

Wendy Weston-Scott is the Purchasing Manager for Toby Weston Handbags , manufacturer of custom made handbags.