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

From Ziplocs to Luxury: The Hudson Bleeker Journey | Emily Blumenthal & Eram Siddiqui

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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What started with plastic grocery bags and Ziplocs sparked a travel accessory empire. Eram Siddiqui turned personal frustration into the polished, fashion-forward brand Hudson+Bleecker—now carried by Nordstrom, Revolve, and QVC. Her journey from sewing with her mom to sourcing manufacturers in China is a testament to grit, adaptability, and style-first problem solving.

Takeaway Points
1. Persistence Meets Purpose: Eram’s story shows how trial, error, and handmade beginnings can lead to premium retail partnerships.
2. Pause to Pivot: Learn how a pandemic-driven business break turned into a breakthrough team expansion and strategic clarity.
3. Form + Function: Discover how Eram balanced trend and utility to build a line that fits the real needs of modern women on the go.

Our Guest, Eram Siddiqui, is the founder of Hudson+Bleecker, a travel accessories brand born from the desire for chic, functional organization. From local Brooklyn markets to national platforms, Eram shares how boutique retail, bootstrapping, and bold choices built her brand. Her story is a blueprint for entrepreneurs ready to create with intention and scale with purpose.

Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.

Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com. 

Buy Emily’s Books: “Handbag Designer 101” & “Savvy Suzanna’s Amazing Adventures in Handbags”


Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner

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Speaker 1:

And so that's always been my purpose is like making women like organized when they travel and feeling good about it when you open your luggage and experiencing that these products are designed for like my everyday function.

Speaker 2:

Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast, with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love. And the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love, from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Welcome Aram Siddiqui of Hudson Bleecker Handbags to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast. Aram, thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for having me, Emily. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

I know you found me, which was cool. I mean, I think people don't realize the power of outreach and I think not enough people take advantage of this idea that you can actually reach out to people you want to talk to and maybe you think they won't respond, but I think nine times out of 10, they will. I think that's a bizarre thing that most people don't even think about, so it's worth taking that jump.

Speaker 1:

So fun fact. I've been on your newsletter for probably like a good 10 years and I read it daily because I love it and it's so informative, so yeah, I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I'm honored to be here with you.

Speaker 2:

Well, you're the target, so this works out even better. It's working and I know your brand is Hudson Bleecker and I've had this platform since 2007. And it's been through, you know, iterations like everything. When I launched Handbag Designer 101, like, we had a designer of the day, we had a street style, we had a bag trend, we had a celebrity bag watch, we had all this jazz. So over the span of, I think let's see up until 2015, I think I was still doing a designer of the day every single day. So I have communicated with thousands of designers. So a lot of times people say, oh, you featured me and I just said just tell me your name and I'll know who you are. I have a memory, so I'm glad we're finally connected. So you started this brand, much like a lot of people with an idea. What was that about?

Speaker 1:

Gosh. Okay, so I'm going to turn things back 20 years. The year was 2005 and I was working in politics and traveling a lot and I didn't have accessories, like I didn't have bags to pack or organize. I love being organized and everything kind of lived in Ziploc bags and my shoes lived in plastic grocery bags and I was like, wait a second, I don't like traveling like this. It doesn't feel elevated, it doesn't make me feel happy, like are there products out there for me?

Speaker 1:

So, as a consumer, I was looking in the marketplace for what I ended up creating and designing and I started out sewing my own bags. And so Did you know how to sew? No, my mom taught me and it was really for my own use. I was like mom, I need a shoe bag, I need a really cute makeup bag and I don't like what's out there and I don't want to run to CVS and buy a one-time use, you know, like disposable product. So, yeah, my mom and I it was so fun We'd go to Joann Fabrics buy fabric, and every time I was in California I'm born and raised in California my mom and I would stay up late at night and she'd teach me how to sew, like how to do trim and how to do lining, and that's really how the idea started.

Speaker 1:

And I started making bags shoe bags for friends and family, and like I would get their like alumni or their college printer from Joanna Fabrics. And they were like, oh you know, can we get some for gifts? And I was like no, guys, I don't have time for that, like I'm working full time. You were still heavily day jobbing. I was heavily nine to five day jobbing in politics in DC and it was just like a side fun thing, Right.

Speaker 2:

And I ask what the material these shoe bags, makeup bags were made out of, and how did your mom know how to sew?

Speaker 1:

So okay, so they were made out of cotton and there there was fuse. Like I was able to purchase fuse and like make them durable, I used to actually Scotchgard them so that they wouldn't, you know, get scuffed up. And then I bought trim, I think, from like just local markets at the time. I'd go to Michael's right and I ran because that's all that was available. And my mom, my mom and my aunt, so growing up, so I'm Indian, like my ethnic background, I grew up my first generation and when we were kids, my mom and my aunts used to sew all of our clothes, like all of our party dresses. It was like I still have them for my own daughter.

Speaker 2:

Did you at that age love them, appreciate them or were embarrassed by them? Because it's usually one of the three, so it's a little bit of actually liked and embarrassed, right.

Speaker 1:

But now that I'm an adult, oh my gosh, there's nothing better than passing those on to my children, isn't that wild? It is this deep love where I am like, okay, they grew out of these clothes that I bought from whatever store and let's donate them, but I will never, ever donate those clothes that I wore as a child and I pass down to my daughter predominantly negative or derogatory for women to be doing, whether it was cooking, whether it was sewing, whether it was making.

Speaker 2:

All had this perceived. Ugh. You know this diminishes who you are as a woman and your role and what you know. We've worked so hard to go against that. And now, because of the creator economy, watch me cook, watch me make, watch me sew. Here's my backstory. Be inspired by me. So I think the optics of where we are on the spectrum of what this means is night and day, like now. If my mom was making my clothes, I'd be like my mom made this. Look at that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That might not be the same for everybody, but it would be for me, as opposed to, it probably wouldn't have been like my mom made my Halloween costume and it was a bunny and I was mortified because everyone had these really cool costumes and my mom physically sewed a bunny like my Halloween bag was a carrot and I was so embarrassed and I couldn't. I felt so guilty. I didn't ever want her to know that, Right.

Speaker 1:

No, it's so. You know what growing up, it was also resources and like the lack of having access to resources. So my parents, because they were immigrants, like they really kept on the tradition of our culture and it was like, look, we can't get clothes, Indian clothes but we we know how to sew them, because that's what they learned, Right. And so, yeah, these clothes have been passed on. I mean, I grew up in a family with a lot of girls and we all have daughters. Most of us, I think, have at least one daughter and it's so fun to see our kids re-rearing those right. Like it's absolutely delightful, and to know that it can be passed on to another cousin, it's really special. Like I'm so grateful for that. I can't even tell you, yeah, I'm sure now you're like yearning for that bunny costume. You're like, where is that thing?

Speaker 2:

Right, my God, it's definitely something, and you know, like someone once told me, that you end up repeating who your parents are or what they do in some shape or form. No matter how far you want to try and get away from it, it ends up being something you do in one way or another. So you know, maybe this concept of you needing to preserve your shoes may have had an impact on what you were doing, to create something, saying I need to, because I know everybody else. Growing up, we always took care of things so they'd last longer.

Speaker 1:

Right, no, exactly, it was, yeah, this concept of like you really appreciated what you had and, like in my 20s, pre-kids, I mean, I had a really solid shoe collection, like those three and a half inch heels that I would not part with. And so I, yeah, it was like look, I want to preserve them, I want to enjoy wearing them, I want to enjoy traveling with them. And that's really how it started. It wasn't really a business actually in 2005. It wasn't until I moved to New York in 2009 and moved to New York.

Speaker 1:

I left politics On purpose. Well, yeah, so my husband got into business school in New York and he had been living here and I was in DC, and so here we were. We're like, you know, we're in New York for a couple of years until he finishes business school and then we'll see where we're off to. So it was purposeful I had to leave my job, right, but I knew that I'd bounce back on my feet in New York. There's so much opportunity. And it was also a time in my career where I was like look, I think I'm done with politics and I think I'm more, I'd be more useful in nonprofit. And so I actually did join a nonprofit in New York, like working on affordable housing, and that was like my nine to five.

Speaker 1:

But my husband was never home, he was in business school and he was, like you know, he was the one who really, like, pushed me towards the idea of taking this creative side that I've always had and saying, hey, why don't you see what happens? Like start a business? And so, going back, I've always been creative, like when I was 16 years old, I used to make handmade invitations for everyone, like all, if there was a graduation, a baby shower, like they would come to me. I would print them out on vellum. Do those you know? Do you remember those like early 2000 cards where you put a little bow and there's something glittery behind? Oh my God vellum.

Speaker 1:

Vellum, that's vintage. You take out the card and you get like some stars that fall out. That was me. I was the girl in town who made those invitations and I was in high school at the time. So I've always had this entrepreneurial spirit, but I always was like, nope, that's not what I went to school for. It was kind of I'm like I went to school for public policy and international studies, but that creative side has always been in me since a very young age. So he was like you have nothing to lose, like go for it, right.

Speaker 1:

So I literally would go to Mood, I'd go to B&J, I would go to M&J. I mean, I hit up all of 7th and 8th Avenue like just ideating, right and in the beginning. So the year was like by the time I launched it was, I think, 2011. And I used to sew all of my bags in Brooklyn. Get them sewed. There was this market that you probably remember in Soho. It was called the Young Designers Market, and who didn't go there? I shopped there. It was my favorite place to hang out on the weekends.

Speaker 1:

So it was on Spring and Mulberry right yeah, that little street across from the park, yes, and it was in this like church, gymnasium, yep, and they had this pop-up and it was this place to be on the weekends, right. And so I started setting up a booth there every Saturday for a year I would show up with my work, like my product and my shoe bags, my little pouches, my dop kits, everything sewn in Brooklyn, and it was an opportunity for me to like market research. It was market research, it was my focus group. It was my focus group to like speak to either potential customers or get feedback on, like why this wasn't a product for them or something they were interested in. And at the time, right, there weren't women's travel accessories. Even as a consumer, I couldn't find them. So it's interesting Like there were days where I'd make some sales. There were consumer, I couldn't find them. So it was interesting Like there were days where I'd make some sales. There were days where I wouldn't, and then there's days where I would just wipe out, right.

Speaker 2:

How did price point tie into all of this? Because this kind of product is you're trying to sell it on them that it's a need, but realistically it's a want. So, and especially at such small quantities, I'm sure it wasn't cheap for you to make them and, being business minded to some degree, you're like I have to make a profit. So doing these shows show you that maybe they were too expensive, maybe they weren't expensive enough, maybe I need to lower my price point. So, and the tricky thing that a lot of people don't know once you do this quote unquote beta testing is OK. I've had some sales. I've realized I have to lower my prices. And then the same person who bought your bag two months ago comes back and they're like hey, it's $50 cheaper. What's that about, did you?

Speaker 1:

go through that evolution. I did go through that evolution because so I never worked in retail, I never worked in design, I never worked in design, I never worked in fashion, so I was learning on the job I'm still learning on the job right, who isn't? And we're evolving and it's a much faster pace now, but it was certainly okay. You hit like two really crucial points of developing a brand right, a sustainable brand, and it was price and scale, and producing in New York wasn't scalable, and I found that out very quickly, and so I actually moved production overseas in 2012 and that was the start, truly, of the brand. The brand launched in January of 2013. Did I say it? Yeah, 2012. And then I started production and setting up our operations overseas, and then it launched in January 2013 from the Westin Hotel in Grand Central.

Speaker 2:

How did you find your production overseas? I went there, I went overseas, I went to China, like I, thankfully, just like, hey, I got this and then just packed up and went on a plane, or did you actually know where you were going?

Speaker 1:

I knew where I was going broadly, but I had never been to China. It was overwhelming and derisive right.

Speaker 1:

Because I was like walking into the unknown, I didn't know what to expect, but I did have friends. I had friends who lived in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, who really helped me navigate the process. And you know, I come from an entrepreneurial background. My parents are entrepreneurs and they had experience working in China and so they were really helpful in making introductions to people working in China, and so they were really helpful in making introductions to people but it wasn't people in my line of work so I kind of had to, you know, navigate around. But I, yeah, I looked at 12 factories over the course of like eight days all around China and by the last day I was like, okay, I think this is a factor I want to go through.

Speaker 1:

You know, we went through like possible relationship, like what your capabilities are, access points, like flying in from New York, and yeah, it was a really interesting time. You know how people say, like when you get the knots in your stomach, like you're onto something, but it's really fearful. That's how I felt about that experience. But once I got into it I was like, oh my gosh, I've been living under a rock. There was no way that I could do this domestically at a price that's attainable, right To your point. And so Hurricane Sandy had happened. We had to move out of our apartment. You asked me where I used to live, where Hudson and Bleeker came from, and unfortunately our home was damaged during Sandy. So we moved into the Westin Hotel and I launched. I remember calling like the salesperson.

Speaker 2:

So this was 2000, in October, December 2013.

Speaker 1:

It was October 2012 that Sandy happened, Right Because it was. Halloween.

Speaker 1:

It was, yes, yeah, october 29th, and we ended up like having to move out of our apartment even before Sandy, like we were in the evacuation zone, and then we never went back. And so we were lucky. We were one of the lucky ones who were provided housing through FEMA, wow. And so they put us up through. We moved around a lot of hotels, but during market January market I was staying at the Western Grand Central, using their business center to make everything happen, my God, pulling all-nighters, and I remember I launched my first market I think it was Coterie, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, wow, february, yeah, early February.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it was Coterie, if I'm not, mistaken.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, yeah, early February, yeah, wow. 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. 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 2:

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 it Bag. Join me, emily Blumenthal, in the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass.

Speaker 2:

Back, 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. Trade shows are definitely an interesting point because, in terms of what the impact is, what they mean, what they matter, I think there's an interesting evolution of needing to do trade shows and then wondering if you should continue doing them. Shows about how difficult it is for independent designers to go through, because there is a proper booth which can run you up to 10, 12,000 by 10, or you'll get a table, the emerging market table, which is probably around five, but you overcreate merch to fill up the space and really there's only five bags of your assortment are really the ones that sell that people want to buy, right?

Speaker 2:

So I've said to them it's that 80-20 rule right, that you learned over time 80 percent, yeah, 20 percent, but you still don't have this 20 percent of your customer to try and protect and foster and grow, but it's really tough. And foster and grow, but it's really tough. And I think there's this huge learning curve to try and really make success out of a trade show, to really allow you to make that jump. How is your experience? Challenging, scary.

Speaker 1:

And scary and a huge financial risk. Right when you're very early to market, you're still navigating. You're still gosh, you don't know what you're doing. Right, when you're very early to market, you're still navigating, you're still gosh, you don't know what you're doing. Right, you're just showing up. It was definitely, yeah, very scary financially. It was hard, but it was almost at that time. You know it was necessary. It was necessary and I also had a showroom. I started with a showroom.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, so many expenses Right.

Speaker 1:

And you're also. I learned very quickly that. So what my objective was, or my design aesthetic was, didn't align with the showroom. So showrooms typically are going to be trend driven. Right, they want to see trend, they want to see that, but that's not what sells because there's a delay between trend on the runways and by the time it's filtered to the market.

Speaker 2:

But I think that's more accelerated in today's world. For that opportunity and that learning, because it really brought me back to my point of view. I learned that just because someone in the showroom said make purple bags because someone wants that for a magazine cover. And you learn after the fact, after you produce you know a short run in purple bags that purple doesn't sell. And you're like I don't know why I listened to them when I knew I shouldn't be. And you have to go through that evolution of knowing of when you're supposed to trust your gut and if your gut just doesn't know any better.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and that that was a turning point for the brand, when I was like you know what? I'm going back, I'm trusting my gut, and that's when things changed and that's when our product design started changing functionally, aesthetically, Like Hudson and Bleeker has. My goal with Hudson and Bleeker is three things it's multitasking for travel quality right. I never want to compromise on quality and function. And fashion. For, like the modern woman, right, and I say the modern woman because we I I don't know if I'm speaking for you- I can't.

Speaker 1:

It's very hard for me to travel in a carry-on and if it happens, right, it's for an overnight or a weekend trip. But listen, I travel with my makeup. I travel with my skincare, my hair products. I travel with jewelry. More often than not, I have three pairs of shoes in my luggage, right, and I've learned how to pack in a carry-on. But I think that, like we're not women are one size fits all in a dock kit like men, and so that's always been. My purpose is like making women like organized when they travel and feeling good about it when you open your luggage and experiencing that these products are designed for like my everyday function, that these products are designed for like my everyday function. So it was like you know you didn't. From a buying perspective, did we fall under like the beauty category? Do we fall under accessories? Do we fall into fashion, or so? That was also an evolutionary process, right? Like, where does the brand sit?

Speaker 2:

And that is another huge challenge that a lot of new designers, at a principle, don't want to fall. I'm none of those, I'm all of those. And then you realize you have to put yourself in a box, you have to be in a category If you ever want anybody to buy you, if you want anybody to merchandise you, because they need to know where to put you next to and what your purpose is.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly. And so, you know, present day there's obviously a lot more travel accessories brands or travel brands, and I think that's helped our brand. It's helped our brand from a positioning of like this is no longer a nice to have to what you pointed out earlier, but like this must have right and does it align with my needs and what I'm looking for when I travel. And so, yeah, I mean now, like you know, it took. So, as you know, like I bootstrapped the brand, like I was a solo founder and it took me eight years to like really hit that stride and become, you know, launch on QVC, get into Nordstrom, get into Revolve and be a player in the marketplace like a brand truly recognizes a brand. And I'm so grateful for all of the like smaller boutiques that helped us build the brand over the years because, to be honest with you, they have the most loyal engaged customers in my opinion.

Speaker 2:

Well, without them, there's no way you could grow, and I think I know so many designers and creators. It doesn't really matter what the market is. Don't realize that. It's a necessity to start with the boutiques. That's where you get your followers, that's where you get your audience. Those boutique owners are the ones who will support you, buy you, talk about you. It's your PR, it's your marketing. Without them, there's no way. Realistically, no retailer will ever touch you until you have traction. And that stickiness comes from, obviously, having an online presence, but also getting into these local boutiques, because they're the ones who are going to help push your product.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And back then, when I first launched, you know, it was overwhelming to establish a direct-to-consumer business and it almost didn't exist right and it was cost prohibitive. It was this realm in which, like, I couldn't comprehend, you know, and so I focused all my energy on the boutiques, on the B2B business, and then, as we grew, I started seeing that shift, okay, leveling out right when we're like not 80% in boutiques. It started becoming this thing where we were pretty saturated in some boutique markets where we're like, hey, you know, we really need to pull back, we're on every corner of this town. And then, yeah, then we started seeing the growth with the majors and now, like, the brand is positioned very strongly on direct-to-consumer and working with our retail partners. And that's where I always wanted to be right and I hope that that growth continues in that same trajectory, want it to be right and I hope that that growth continues in that same trajectory.

Speaker 2:

So can you just touch upon how you went from solo to partner to now you have a real title, because anytime I've spoken to designers or creators and they say I'm founder CEO, I'm like it's just you, you don't, you know you're president and no one needs that on a business card, because no one's looking for you to see. So how did you go from bootstrap to partner? How did that happen?

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh, ok. So whatever you want to call me the Jill of all trades for 13 years, yeah. And then the pandemic happened.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

The pandemic happened and I gave birth to my second child on March 11th of 2020. So I was in the hospital when the world shut down and I came home and you know, you have all these plans in place. You're like I'm going to have child care at home, like grandma and grandpa are going to come and help and my older one's going to be in school. And that's really not how life netted out. I was home with two kids overnight and homeschooling one and newborn with the other, and you know, we're all human and I was like this is all I can take right now. Right, this is all I can do. There were supply chain issues, like I don't know if you remember, but there was like blank, blank sale dates where it's like you can load but we don't know when we're going to sell.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

And then, but you've got canceled dates on the other end and you're like, talking to your, your retail partners, you're like we don't know when we can deliver. And then you're like, ok, I'm going to get penalties and I'm going to get chargebacks for this whole world that I can't control right now, but I do know that I can be present with my newborn Right and, within the confines of this home, I can control that Right and be present with my children. So I really made a choice and made a choice and said, hey, like this is a challenging time and I there's not much I can do from a supply chain standpoint, also, manufacturing in China, our suppliers and our factories were online and offline without any Right. So it was tough. It was tough, but I hit pause. I said, all right, I've got to hit pause for my own mental health and really just focus on what's important at hand right now. And I hit pause for 18 months. My kids went back to school. After 18 months, new York City schools were closed. At that point, my little one, like, went into daycare. And then I started saying, ok, I'm ready for this, I'm ready, I feel better. You know you. Also, when you hit pause, I think that there's this negative connotation, particularly for women and mothers. But I came out of that pause with so much clarity, with so much clarity, like, of what I wanted in the long term, and I really put this out in the universe.

Speaker 1:

I was like, all right, I've done this hustle, I've done this grind by myself, I've made sacrifices, as all entrepreneurs that you've probably spoken to now, yourself included. Listen, it's a 24 hour, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle and you've got to do what you've got to do. If it's at 4am, I used to like sometimes do like customs documents at three in the morning because it's sailing out of China. I'm receiving, I'm watching, you know, receiving live unloads at the warehouse. I'm doing marketing, I'm doing PR, I'm I have a trainer in Pennsylvania to go on QVC Like you're doing everything. Yeah, and I was like I can't do everything because by doing everything, I'm doing a disservice to, like, the potential of the brand right, there's so much opportunity and so much potential, but there's one person and that's just not sustainable. So, yeah, put it out in the universe. I was like I want a partner moving forward. I know I need support and I want a thought partner. I want a leader right to come into this with me.

Speaker 1:

And that didn't happen overnight. It took some time, but I was pretty much set like hey, you know what we're unpausing once I find that partner, once I find that person, and, as the universe would happen, like as the universe would have it, that person found me and reached out to me, like reached out through, like an old acquaintance called me after many years and was like hey, what's going on with Hudson and Bleeker? And you know, I filled her in and she's like I might have a partner for you. Like let me call him up and see. And sure enough, like he was like I want to meet you within days.

Speaker 1:

We chatted, we met in person. And he was like like I want to meet you within days. We chatted, we met in person and he was like I'm all in, like I love the brand, I love the product, I have confidence in you. And he's like this is an opportunity that I'm interested in and he comes from like the operations side. That's his experience, and so I was really grateful and we have an amazing working relationship. We're now a team of gosh one, two, three, four, five six, did he bring money with him?

Speaker 1:

he did. He brought money with him and he brought in a lot of you know partners on the marketing side. He brought in partners on the logistics side and he also has experience like working in China. He has other brands that he works with and so it was a very natural relationship and I think that we complement each other, like in terms of where his strengths lie and where my strengths lie. And I think, above all else, like I was just telling my husband the other day, there's trust, Right, there's trust.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I, over the years, had thought about like look, do I want to raise capital? Do I want to bring in investors? Do I want to bring in a VC? I thought about all of this and my friends who have raised money were always like very cautious to like listen, like whoever you bring in as an investor, it's a marriage. You never want to get divorced because it's an ugly divorce. And I thought about that and I was like I want a strategic partner more than the money. I want a strategic thought partner and thankfully, I'm so glad that I have that truly. So it doesn't reduce my workload by any means. I've anything. I work a lot more, but it's more strategic in my role right, and I'm able to oversee at a high level, but I'm also able to hyper-focus on what I want to do.

Speaker 2:

My God, aram, this has been so enlightening. I'm so grateful for you sharing your story I think it's really inspiring. And to go from where you were to where you are now, I think not to be cheesy, it just shows that it is possible. But no one should ever discount the work, the learning curve, the cost of doing business on you personally, professionally, financially, and the value of taking that break and what that does. And maybe, had that not happened, who knows, maybe this wouldn't, you wouldn't be where you are. So how can we find you, follow you and get more about you and your amazing brand?

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you, of course. So you can follow the brand at Hudson Bleeker. So it's H-U-D-S-O-N-B-L-E-E-C-K-E-R. I say that because sometimes bleeker can be misspelled.

Speaker 2:

Well, if anyone's not from New York, it's like someone who visits and says Houston Street and you're like, no, no, it's Houston.

Speaker 1:

It's at Hudson Bleeker on TikTok on Instagram. Yes, it's Houston. It's at Hudson Bleeker on TikTok on Instagram, facebook, youtube, the works. And then you can find me on Instagram at Aram Siddiqui. And, of course, you can visit Hudson and Bleeker dot com. So, yeah, and I'm always happy if there's other, if there's entrepreneurs and people who are starting their new brands like creators who are starting brands, if they ever want to reach out, I'm happy to like, like, give that back. I have a wonderful mentor who's guided me and I love doing that for others.

Speaker 2:

Amazing Aram. Thank you so much. Thank you, 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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