Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons

Mastering American Manufacturing with Kim Thomas

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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Kim Thomas, a seasoned designer with an inspiring journey from footwear to handbags, joins us to unpack the secrets of her success. Her story is one of grit, creativity, and the power of networking, charted from her early days in New York to her ambitious partnerships with Los Angeles manufacturers. Learn how she navigated the challenges of launching a custom footwear line, and how those experiences have shaped her consultancy career today, helping other brands to grow and thrive in the competitive world of fashion.

Ever wondered what makes some handbags stand out while others fall flat? Kim shares her expertise on the pivotal role of leather selection in handbag design. Discover why authentic leather, particularly sourced from eco-friendly tanneries, is not just a sustainable option but a crucial factor in creating quality products. From choosing the right leather for structured bags to maximizing yield and aesthetic appeal, Kim provides valuable insights that are perfect for budding designers and seasoned professionals alike.

Join us as we tackle the complexities of American manufacturing within the fashion industry. Explore the dynamic landscape of domestic production, from the advantages of working in cities like Los Angeles to the unique opportunities in other U.S. regions. Gain a fresh perspective on how traditional craftsmanship, such as furniture-making techniques, can be applied to handbag production. With an emphasis on sustainable practices and reducing waste, Kim offers practical advice that blends the art of design with the satisfaction of seeing a product come to life locally.

Use code “DANFIELD15” to get 15% off your next order.

Follow Kim:

www.danfieldleather.com

https://www.instagram.com/danfield_leather 

www.kimthomasconsulting.com

https://www.instagram.com/kimthomasconsulting/ 



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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to the Handbag Designer 101 podcast with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, where we cover everything about handbags from making, marketing, designing and talking to handbag designers and industry experts about what it takes to make a successful handbag.

Speaker 2:

Welcome Kim Thomas to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast. Kim, I am excited to have you today. You found me on LinkedIn, which goes to show you know it's all about the network, isn't it Absolutely Amazing? So how did you find me? Was it one of those like recommended, or you were obviously searching for me? What brought it on?

Speaker 3:

I'm working with a company right now and we're selling letters and I'm looking to kind of open up my database. So I come from a footwear world and that's really where my space has been Handbags as well, but mostly footwear. So, in opening up my network of people, I'm on LinkedIn all the time, I'm trying to figure out kind of where this can land itself and your profile showed up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, anything, handbags. I seem to always be at the tippity top and after 20 years I should be. You know I have paid my dues. I am here for it one way or another and I work with a lot of people who've been a good shoe to my bag. And I thought your background was super interesting and we were having a little chat before and you were just kind of going into that. You have worked with several startups within the space, specifically within American manufacturing. So if you want to just dive into like what your background is and how you stumbled into this world because nobody does this on purpose- that is very true and it is a tangled line, you know.

Speaker 3:

It's certainly not straight. So I started working with American Factory, specifically in footwear, and that was about 18 years ago, on purpose. Yeah, I went to FIT and I went to FITM and did the footwear program at FITM and so I was an evangelist and notoriously in LA 18 years ago there was a lot more manufacturing of footwear and handbags.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, know there was a lot more manufacturing of footwear and handbags. Oh yeah, so it kind of was a natural space to go to school at FITM to then lead itself into manufacturing here, because I always wanted to start my own brand and in doing that, it's really overwhelming to think about starting your own brand and needing international minimums. What better way to do it than to do American production? And then, realizing that that was actually a reasonable thing to want, I went to LA and started working with LA manufacturers.

Speaker 2:

So did you know you wanted to go back to? Are you from LA?

Speaker 3:

No, I'm from New York, I'm from upstate New York. I went to a SUNY school and it had a 3-1 program with FIT. So then I did FIT. I was a merchandising major. So I interned at a bar. I interned out Ralph Lauren. And when I was out Ralph Lauren, they were like here's what your job would look like. And I was like, oh no, that is not what I want to do. So I went back to school at FITM and started my footwear collection. I had a custom footwear line with a friend of mine and we did it for years. It was super fun. We did everything in LA and then we really broke down the math one day and realized we don't make any money.

Speaker 2:

So we said sorry, I didn't mean to cackle, but that's that. Epiphany is always an interesting one because you throw your heart, soul, hopes, dreams, ideas, sketches, hard work, nights after nights, and it takes I don't know three to five years to be like oh damn, we are breaking even on a good day and luckily we were young.

Speaker 3:

So you know we had put in the energy we had put in the time, but we hadn't put any finances really into it.

Speaker 3:

Any money that we made we put back into the business and it really strengthened myself and my business partners' expertise in footwear.

Speaker 3:

We were using all local leathers that were, you know, the leather houses that were bringing stuff in, all local manufacturers, all local hardware, everything that we could source in LA, and so it was a really interesting exercise at the end of all of it, of what could be done here, and realize that you know, when you're working within the boundaries of something, a lot can actually happen. So we found amazing sources that I still use now. You know, one of the leather sources that we were working with is the leather company that I'm selling leather for now, and we're a lot of places in L, places in LA where we could do custom work and manufacture hardware pieces. And that kind of led itself into me working with other handbag brands and other footwear brands and then I started consulting and building my business out that way. So I worked with bigger brands on and off and then it led off into, eventually, a client who we opened up a footwear factory in Los Angeles, and we did that for almost four years, which was really amazing.

Speaker 2:

So you kept said business partners, you guys never had a breakup. That's amazing.

Speaker 3:

Well, she's my best friend, so that could go either way.

Speaker 2:

We all know that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but we stopped our custom business once we realized the financial implications of that. But the relationship was always very honest and very easy because of that, so it just became a really good exercise that we can both look back on and go like, wow, that taught us so much about building a business and making a product.

Speaker 2:

Did you meet her at FIDM or you knew her before? I was friends with her since the sixth grade. Wow, and she moved to LA as well. Did it just work out that way?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we decided to move out here together. I went to FITM, she worked for Bloomingdale's and She'scom and then we kind of worked that back and I was always the design and product and she was always the sales, merchandising, branding kind of world of that. So we just split the jobs and kind of ran it that way.

Speaker 2:

This touches on so many good points that, okay, going back to school after you get your first degree, having no ego, realizing you have to do everything yourself working within the field in order to educate yourself, because that education is essentially a paid degree that someone is paying you to learn. Going through all these steps of working with local manufacturing and I always felt that the opportunities for domestic manufacturing in LA was always easier than doing it in New York, having grown up within the Garmin Center myself here and spent enough time within the LA Garmin Center and realizing like, oh my God, granted, you've got to drive here and get stuck in traffic, but it's so much easier.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and there was always a bigger tool to choose from. You know, I felt like in New York there were some people making things, but it was really tight, and in LA it's not so tight but a little bit more secretive. Yes, 100%. That's why I started my consulting business was I realized that people were calling me because I had this custom shoe business and saying how do I make shoes? You're making them here, how are you doing it? And I would just kind of give the information out. And then I was having my factory relationships call me and say please don't, because we don't want to deal with the people who don't know what they're doing.

Speaker 3:

They don't have the human resource power to take that on, filter that information, figure out what they have or don't have. So I kind of built a business on holding people's hands and saying let me get you through this development process. If you get through the development process and you want to move forward, then great, we move into production together. Or now you have everything you need to do it yourself, if that works for both the manufacturer and the designer.

Speaker 2:

Now 100%.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I can't tell you how many handbag designers I've worked with and I have enough people within the industry that everyone.

Speaker 2:

I firmly believe there's enough space and business for everyone because there's plenty of clients to go around, and that is truly the reason why I created this online masterclass where people could do it theoretically with me or do it on their own, because to work with us in the state is not cheap and you're getting 20 plus years of experience and resources, and I created it solely to do it at an affordable rate for people to do it on their own time. And if not, not, and if you want to move forward, then I'm happy to talk to you. But we've all dealt with enough people who are so green and they come in and saying I want to do this with the bespoke lining from Italy, with the extra leather and this handle, and they're not even their own customer and they don't know how to price, and all the education and time, effort and energy in the world is not going to change that. They want to do something that just won't sell. So it's definitely even a lot to learn that as someone on the receiving end.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I always felt also like a little bit of a sense of responsibility to not letting people that are new into this world get taken advantage of Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm that to happen. And so you know it feels good when you build something out for somebody. You help them kind of manage it, maintain it, form those great relationships and go with it and see it blossom into something else.

Speaker 2:

So you had said that you started working with local manufacturing within LA. You moved on from starting your own brand and then you and your business partner started organically consulting. How did you decide, had you ever worked with non-leather, had you ever worked with PU, or you became this expert within leather? Because to do PU with shoes is difficult.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it depended always on the brand. So Jen actually and I we split our business and then I just went on consulting and so with that I picked up different types of customers and so I have bigger brands, volume brands, fast fashion brands, and those we were manufacturing not in LA but in China, in Peru, in Portugal, and so stuff like that, you know, is very dependent on the price point and so a lot of that lent itself to working with PU. But you know, anybody who's worked with boats know that it just is easier and makes better product when you're using authentic leathers and materials. Not only that, it's more sustainable. So a lot about sustainability in the industry right now, and I think leather in itself take away all the processing, anything that actually happens to it it's a byproduct of another whole industry that things are happening in. So the sustainability level of leather is automatic, right. And then you know, depending upon the tanneries that you work with, everybody that we're working with at Danfield and that's the leather company there's a lot of third party certifications that we have on being a green company, on doing green tanning, on sustainability.

Speaker 3:

So it's just a nicer, feel-good kind of space to be working with leather because you're something that is not. You know it's not always price sensitive and it's not always a luxury item, but you can feel good about what the actual material is. It's also, you know, being a hands-on visual designer person, you know there's this aesthetic to it. You're feeling it, you're touching, you're moving. It just feels better, deep field touch. That's what I say, absolutely, and you can tell the difference. I mean, I see, sometimes in footwear it can be difficult because footwear pieces are smaller, right, using these tiny pieces, the naked eye doesn't always see the difference, but in a hashtag, a thousand percent, you see the difference in a genuine leather article versus synthetics.

Speaker 2:

You can just see.

Speaker 3:

It just makes a huge difference. I mean you can see it in the grain, you can see it in the structure of it. All of those things make a huge difference. I mean you can see it in the grain, you can see it in the structure of it. All of those things make a big difference.

Speaker 2:

Can you just as someone who is a pretty solid leather expert because we spoke about this before and this is a question I get a lot what skins do you recommend for what kind of silhouettes? Because I know certain bags truly should be lighter weight and other bags should be more sturdy to allow more structure. So can you touch upon that, because I know this is going to be a golden nugget of a topic.

Speaker 3:

Sure, I mean, it all depends on the construction, and I think that's the biggest part of design properly is to understand what you're trying to make at the end. You know a structured bag, something that's got bonded leather in it that's going to hold it all together, that's going to be stiff and more like a you know a handle bag, an attache case, things like that. You're going to want to use a stiffer leather. You know you can add that stiffness by putting bonded leather behind it and by adding linings and things. But the more you add, the heavier it gets.

Speaker 2:

Yep, people don't realize that either.

Speaker 3:

No, and you want it light, you know, because you're going to put stuff in your bag. I mean, if you carry a bag, you don't want to start with five pounds, you want to start with like negative six and then build into your bag all the stuff you add every day with like negative six and then build into your bag all the stuff you add every day.

Speaker 2:

I used to joke about the Marc Jacobs bags of the early 2000s that you needed an orthopedist number to go with it because the bags were so heavy even with nothing in it.

Speaker 3:

And with time that hurts. You carry that bag every day. You know your neck starts to hurt.

Speaker 2:

You get like you get the cramp and yep Exactly Yep In terms of bond and leather. Would you recommend cow? Just to speak a little deeper.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean working with the carrier of the bag. You know, depending upon the size is a big deal too. So you look at a pattern piece right and you see if you're using like a giant tote bag and this is like an oversized type of bag, you have to use a bigger skin.

Speaker 2:

You're not going to want to use like a lamb, which means it would have to come from a bigger animal, just to be clear.

Speaker 3:

You're going to be using cow, you're going to be using the bigger pieces of cow. You're not going to be using calf because it's a smaller skin. So you have to also think of where the stitch lines are in the pattern, because you want to get the best yieldage out of whatever you're using. So you know you take and this kind of goes back to using good qualities too. I mean there's different grades of leather, right? So your grade A leather is going to have minimal defects, you know. And then there's certain uses that have a use for a leather that has a higher defect count.

Speaker 3:

Ideally, when you're making handbags, you want very little defect because you're going to have to cut around all of those spots on the skin.

Speaker 3:

So you know you want to be using a good quality supplier so that you know that the skins that you're getting in aren't going to have these defects. It's a natural animal so there's things on it like mosquito bite marks and scratches and branding and things that happen that go deeper than being able to correct it with finishing. So you have to make sure that the supplier you're using is communicative about the quality of the letter they have and when you think about finishes, if you have something that's embossed or that is brainier, generally speaking, that's going to hide those defects better. You're not going to. If it's a smooth top, if it's very, very flat, if it's matte, it's just all of those things come out and so, like you know, if you're doing like a really structured bag, you can do something like a box half the thicker that got a tightness to it. So when you're using and I'm going to this is obviously a podcast, so you can see this, but not everybody- else can no, no, no.

Speaker 2:

We have a YouTube clip of it, so people can watch it too.

Speaker 1:

If you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer but aren't trained in design, this is for you. If you have a handbag brand and need strategy and direction, this is for you. I'm Emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, and this is the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. This is the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. Over the next 10 classes, I will break down everything you need to know to make, manufacture and market a handbag brand. Broken down to ensure that you will not only skip steps in the handbag building process, but also to save money to avoid the learning curve of costly mistakes.

Speaker 1:

For the past 20 years, I've been teaching at the top fashion universities in New York City, wrote the Handbag Designer Bible, founded the Handbag Awards and created the only Handbag Designer podcast. I'm going to show you like I have countless brands to create in this in-depth course, from sketch to sample to sale. Whether you're just starting out and don't even know where to start or begin, or if you had a brand and need some strategic direction, the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass is just for you. So let's get started and you'll be the creator of the next 8-pack. Join me, emily Blumenthal, in the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. So be sure to sign up at emilyblumenthalcom slash masterclass and type in the code PODCAST to get 10% off your masterclass today.

Speaker 3:

So you're going to be, you know, a thin leather. You're really moving, you know what I mean, and this is great for something that's a little bit lighter and less structured. But a thicker leather is something like this is a box tough and it's a thick like two millimeter, but it doesn't have that same. It's not going to twist, it's not going to bend, but it's going to be pliable. Work with a pattern and especially and you know you see bags that have I am looking down because I pulled two this one is not it's folded edge, but it's a more structured bat.

Speaker 3:

So we use leather, you know, and we're able to kind of build out these pieces that it just lays flatter versus.

Speaker 2:

I have another one and I just want to for those who are listening. You just showed me a croco embossed leather bag. And is that cow? Is that calf like?

Speaker 3:

That was cow and they were huge skins, actually really, really big, which led us to in yieldage, and the pattern on this bag had probably 10 different pattern pieces, and so you're able to lay that out. When you imagine how you're building this bag, you have this big skin laid out on a table, you're putting all those pattern pieces in and then you're utilizing that space. So with all those different pattern pieces, the trick with an emboss is you have to line it up so the pattern pieces align. But you know you are able to get the most out of that piece.

Speaker 2:

What do you do and I apologize for the siren, but we are in New York, it happens, if you can or cannot hear it what do you do with the fall off, with the? You know what sometimes can be known as dead stock, where you know the leftover materials that someone purchased and didn't do anything with, or just the scraps that come off, because I know some factories actually use those little scraps and turn it into product that they then sell on their own. So how do you work with that, especially in today's era? You know there is this really interesting throwback and I love talking about handbag history. It jazzes me If anybody is listening and is obsessed with handbag history.

Speaker 2:

I've done so far a three-part series on my sub stack Handbag Designer 101, on parts one, two and three from the dawn of time, and I'm a loose sight of the 1950s. By the time this airs there'll be more parts. But after the Spanish flu, which was the first pandemic, you know everybody it's just so interesting how history repeats itself that people were inside and then after that came the Roaring Twenties, but that was coupled on top of the Great Depression, and following that was this really fascinating piece that they did during World War II called the FET handbag tax, where they put an excise tax, where they put an actual tax on handbags because they treated them as luxury items. And what all of the newspapers and so forth and all the media was pushing is saying, ok, if you can't afford that extra tax, make the bags yourself. And that was really where the onslaught of DIY came, and using every little piece you can find and making sure that there's absolutely no wastage.

Speaker 2:

And if anybody reflects on their grandparents, like nothing was wasted, like we would go out to dinner with my grandma and you know the salt and pepper packets were taken, the ketchup was like you name it, it was taken because I don't believe in wastage. It's coming with me. I will find a use for it. And then over time, with the glutton, you know there's so much stuff, everything would just get thrown out. So you know there's dead stock. I know that there's material. Once it's been dyed it has a certain lifespan or else it starts to disintegrate and then that lets off gases. So if you could speak a little bit about what you recommend as designers who have dead stock, if there's anything they could do with it or what to do with those scraps, because I know that's truly a hot topic right now.

Speaker 3:

Well, a couple of things. I mean I know that a lot of designers and handbag companies will obviously know your yield is and you're doing your costs and you realize how much you're going to have left over. And I've seen people make you know a little cutting die and then build out key chains with it, build their own tassels. If you do it right, you obviously have very minimal scrap and you know you have these tiny little pieces at the end. When I was at Clover and Cobbler, which was the factory that we opened in Van Nuys, we had these huge boxes and we would fill the scraps up and then sell them on Etsy and send them out and they were little piece scraps that DIYers were using to make their own product. So I mean, there's a lot of things you can do with it. I think it kind of becomes two different industries. You know you're the designer and you're building out your bag and then you're the DIYer pulling from those extra scraps and making your own things with it.

Speaker 2:

That's wild and that's a really great idea. Is it standard for designers with the scraps to say, after you're done, I would like my scraps, because I know a lot of designers don't know to do that, especially if they'd paid them for the materials?

Speaker 3:

I think it depends where you are. It was easy for us because we were in LA, so most of our customers were coming to pick up their product. So when you came to pick up your product, take your stuff with you, you know, and you could leave it and we could dispose of it and figure out somebody that wanted to use it, and we even had people that worked with us that they used it. So as long as somebody's using it, great, you know, nobody else's, please. But doing it overseas is definitely a different animal, because how do you? You don't want to ship back your quote unquote waste. You want to ship back only the product that you're selling and then the fact, you don't deal with that.

Speaker 2:

So that is something that you have to take into consideration. In your experience, has that ever been a conversation with a factory saying, what are you doing with my leftovers? Because I know it's a tricky dance to do as manufacturers, as independent designers, especially when you're coming in with not high POs, big purchase orders. The more difficult and high maintenance you are, the less likely they will want to work with you. So you want to. That's why doing your homework and research and that's why I created the masterclass and why people work with you, so by the time they get to the factory, they're not charged an extra arm and a leg for the time value of money that they then need to use to teach you. Or they just won't, or they'll charge you triple because they know you're going to be a liability. How do you recommend asking for something like that?

Speaker 3:

I think actually most factories, if you have a good relationship with them. I know that everybody I work with here in LA nobody would have a problem putting your stuff aside. I have an agent I work with in China. Sometimes she would be fine to put it aside. I know a lot of people in Portugal like it's just, it's that relationship that you have and I think it's the way that you ask. You know, if you say, hey, that's all my leather, if you don't mind when you're cutting that down, just throw it in a box, I'll grab it or I'll pay for the shipping or I'll do whatever I need to get it back to me, or, you know, I think the factory would be more excited about the opportunity to make something different with it. So if you were able to send them a cutting die or something to make a keychain with they're going to use, then that much more and throw them in the bags and send them with everything else that gets sent out.

Speaker 2:

So therefore, you're not spending the money on the shipping Exactly. And what a lot of designers don't realize is that you might find a factory overseas and they won't charge you for the sample and you're going to be over the moon, rainbows, fairies, unicorns oh my God, I'm so lucky, wow. Until you realize you're paying for shipping, and shipping, if not done correctly, at a minimum will cost you five hundred dollars at a minimum, at a minimum, and that's just for one, and then the next sample you will then potentially get charged for. So then that's two, that's shipping twice and then paying for the sample. And let's not forget, if you have any comments, you might want to ship that bag back to them because you've marked it up. So there's all these things that you need to take into consideration, which means doing your homework that much better in advance and educating yourself to save on thousands with a Z of dollars on just shipping costs overseas back and forth.

Speaker 3:

It also leads itself to the idea of the stability with American manufacturing. Because what you know, what I think we often do, is compare the FOB price and say, okay, well, this costs $45 to bring it in from China. Okay, well, yeah, it might, and it might cost you $90 to do it in LA, but you have reduced your shipping costs, you have reduced all of those, the back and forth, the time spent. All of those equate to dollars. I think apples to apples becomes a little bit different. You have to consider all of those development costs, tooling costs, the idea of high minimums and the waste in a high minimum. That and it's a very not sustainable environment to work in.

Speaker 2:

And just for those who are listening what does FOB mean and how does it relate?

Speaker 3:

Sure, yeah, that's like your freight on board, right? I think is how the acronym is it is, but that's your all on board, right? I think that's how the acronym is it is. But that's your all-in cost, right I mean? So you're getting that cost with figuring out all of your shipping, right, and those prices then are you have to make sure that everything is equitable, right? So that price with shipping has to be the price for your American production.

Speaker 2:

You know you have to be contrasting and comparing the things that are aligned and just to be clear, when someone's speaking FOB pricing freight on board, that's getting only to where it's supposed to go. That's not even clear in customs. And then if you're doing that, that's called LDP, landed duties paid, and that's an extra fee. So sometimes designers will say give me an LDP price, so you're bringing it into the country, because the time value of money of me trying to find a customs broker and expediter someone in shipping customs, da, da, da da. It's worth paying that extra amount just for someone to help you. That said, all those extra fees mount up. So trying to amortize those costs and doing it domestically sometimes makes a lot more sense, where you can also talk to the factory, work with them directly. Have that kind of rapport. I'd love to get your thoughts, though, on domestic manufacturing. If you are not in LA, how do you handle that? Because you know it's the same situation as it is almost shipping overseas.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, if you're like you know, if you're in a different part of the country and you decide you want to manufacture in LA, it's a little bit easier, I think, because there's a less of a time change. Even if you're in New York, you're only a three hour difference, you know. So it's easier because you're also. You know native language is generally the same, so there's no miscommunication on language. You know you're able to working in Los Angeles. You're either if you're working with me or Zooming with me, or on a call with me, we're talking through it or we're direct with the factory. So it's a lot easier for me to drive downtown, you know, meet with that factory in person and deliver all of that information real time.

Speaker 3:

When you're working overseas, there's a lot of back and forth emails because I might be on the phone with China, but I'm on the phone with China at 9pm and then they have to go talk to four people and then get back to me and then I get back to you and so we're 12 hour lag time back and forth and that just all. It's always been interesting because, you know, when consulting it's always felt like 50 percent of my clients how I wanted to manufacture in America. 50 percent of my clients how I wanted to manufacture overseas, and it's always Christ driven. I mean, obviously if you could, everybody would manufacture in America. It just makes more sense. As a developer, working overseas is really interesting too, because that capacity and the capabilities are just different. Align those priorities with each customer with the right space for them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is so interesting.

Speaker 3:

Do you think in your professional opinion there are other cities that people aren't aware of, where there is domestic manufacturing of American leathers that come out of the Midwest? It's not a thriving industry anymore, it's just, you know. But the people that have stuck it out and are there there's people there. You know, in furniture it's like North Carolina. There's a lot of stuff that comes out of North Carolina and same thing happens there, that there's an American leather sources there. Because that's often kind of what happens with this industry. If you have a bustling furniture business and there's all these people making furniture, you know you're going to need leathers. So there's just a subsequent leather house that's there. So there's different parts of the country are doing different things.

Speaker 3:

American manufacturing has been kind of a stronghold in what I've done and it's kind of run throughout everything, even coming in and out of different countries.

Speaker 3:

It's really interesting and working with the leather company, I actually started working with interior designers and working with furniture makers because that's still an industry that's happening big in Los Angeles too. Even as footwear factories have closed back, factories have closed, furniture businesses are still here and it's a true art. My father was a carpenter, so kind of getting back into that world and walking into a furniture factory is really amazing, because you're smelling like all of this wood, it's all handmade, things are still being built and that is really where I think, like the passion of this work for me comes from is seeing the things actually physically being built, and that is really where I think, like the passion of this work for me comes from is seeing the things actually physically being built. So you don't have that experience. You know, I used to go to China all the time and you would have that experience when you were there, but that's not reasonable for me anymore. So like being here in LA and still experiencing that is really amazing.

Speaker 2:

I think there's just quietly a huge opportunity to make handbags with wood extras in one way or another, because I think it's a low-hanging fruit, because the factories making furniture could make a handbag blindfolded in comparison. Absolutely yeah. I just want to thank you, kim, for taking the time and educating us. How can we find you, follow you? I would love to have you back to do a State of the Union in terms of what's going on with manufacturing, because I think we've just crossed the iceberg. I know I'm saying that incorrectly.

Speaker 3:

The iceberg?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. I'm notorious for screwing up idiomatic expressions, other than the fact that I know they are an idiomatic expression. So you know it's funny. I just had a parent-teacher conference for my third grader and she said he uses a lot of big words, he's got a great vocabulary, but he doesn't use those words. And I said well, it's not for me. So there you have it. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3:

I'm working with Danfield, so if anybody out there who's listening and watching wants to go onto danfieldleatherscom, we're offeringa promo code. If you mentioned Kim, it's 15% off for any letters.

Speaker 3:

I'll make sure to post that when the episode goes live, for sure, please do, and we offer a lot online, but we also offer customizations, which is really interesting for the handbag world because, as we all know, you may find the perfect leather, the perfect finish, the perfect, and then you need it to be a different Pantone color. Just a little Offer those things, which is pretty amazing. I have a website, kimthomasconsultingcom. I also have an Instagram although I am notorious for not being on social media because but it's there and a LinkedIn presence also, kim Thomas.

Speaker 2:

So just so everyone knows, it's K-I-M-T-H-O-M-A-S. Correct, correct, and Danfield is D-A-N-F-I-E-L-D. Leather Is it leathers or leather Leathers? Say okay, leather Is it leathers or leather Leathers? Say okay, plural. Fabulous, kim, thank you. Thank you, thank you for being part of Handbag Designer 101. And we're absolutely gonna have you back to have a state of the union with what's going on in the leather industry and talking about trends, because you're a great find through LinkedIn. So you know, shout out to LinkedIn for this.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single platform at Handbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time.

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Emily Blumenthal

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