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

Luxury with a Past Life: How Evey Amery Built a Global Pre-Loved Handbag Empire ♻️👜 | Emily Blumenthal and Evey Amery

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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Step into the booming world of pre-loved designer handbags with Evey Amery, founder of EveysPreLoved, the London-based luxury consignment business redefining what “sustainable fashion” really means. 💼✨

From Chanel and Hermès to Fendi and beyond, Evey brings transparency, trust, and TV-presenter polish to a market where condition and authenticity are everything. What started as a side hustle while hosting on QVC has grown into a beloved resale brand with a global following. 🌍📦

💡 Key Takeaways:
 🔹 Transparency Wins: Why showing signs of wear builds more trust than trying to hide them.
🔹 Circular Luxury: How the resale boom is reshaping buyer behavior—and challenging new designers.
🔹 From Side Hustle to Brand: How handwritten notes and genuine passion created a loyal customer base.

Whether you’re a designer trying to understand the resale impact or a buyer curious about sustainable luxury, this episode offers real talk and smart insights from one of the industry’s most trusted voices. 🎧

🎧 Listen now! #HandbagDesigner101 #SustainableLuxury #PreLovedBags #CircularFashion #LuxuryResale #IndependentBusiness

Our Guest: Evey Amery, founder of Evey’s Pre-Loved, blends a background in broadcasting with a deep love of fashion, building a resale business rooted in authenticity, community, and the enduring charm of a well-traveled bag.

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”



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Speaker 1:

So I have to get across I have to get across very quickly, the feeling of it. Obviously, I need to know every product, I need to understand it. I need to know the color, the name. I immediately show signs of wear. I need to do that very transparently. I just talk. I mean, you can leave me in a room on my own and I will talk for hours.

Speaker 2:

Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, emily Blumenthal. 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, 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, evie Amory of Evie's Pre-Loved. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, emily, and I've been very excited to be chatting with you as well.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And, as you know, americans love an accent, so you are not here. Where are you based, evie?

Speaker 2:

I'm based in London, so I'm actually in North London, and it's quite funny you say that because I love the American accent. Oh good God, so excited to learn that you are one of the key people now within the circular economy. Can you talk a little bit about what Evie's Pre-Loved is and what it's about?

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you, and that's very kindly to say so. Evie's Pre-Loved is a luxury assignment business. We specialize in pre-loved designer luxury bags from the likes of Marbury, chanel, fendi. Luxury bags from the likes of Marbury, chanel, fendi, hermes, dior, saint Laurent. I'm in handbag heaven. To be really honest, I absolutely love what I do, but, importantly for me, it's about sustainability, and I feel every bag has its own little journey, and once it's finished its journey with one person, why shouldn't it continue on with someone else?

Speaker 2:

Exactly. I couldn't agree more. Are you able, just because this is you know, not only to have a brand and a business on pre-loved, high-end luxury bags, which is very difficult to do. You also need to become a trusted source from the people of which you get those bags, from the people of which you get those bags, how did you develop this affinity and then build into this brand and then recognize that there was actually a full-on market? Because I suppose when you started, the desire and the constant need probably didn't exist the way it does now.

Speaker 1:

Well, I've always worked in fashion and I grew up in Brighton, so I don't know if you know Brighton. I do. It's a really cool, eclectic little place and funny enough. Years and years ago, the very first shop that I came across it was called Names and it was near the lanes actually in Brighton and it was we call it pre-loved, but then it was secondhand and I always used to be curious walking past this shop and I've got to be honest with you, it was not a la mode at that point to be buying that. It wasn't it to be buying other people's clothes and bags and in a way you know there was, unfortunately, I have to say, there was some type of snob value to that. You'd think, 100%, why would I be doing that? And is it going to be clean? And and you know what's it going to be clean and you know what's it going to be like. So I was always slightly curious about it. But bags I was always passionate about. And to come back to your question, how did I fall into this?

Speaker 1:

Since 2012, I've been a television presenter, guest presenter at QVC, and if you know, and I'm sure you do freelance work, you never know when you're going to be working. You know you literally wake up in the morning and there'll be an email Can you get in in two hours time to do it, or you might not hear anything for a couple of weeks. And in the end I was going crazy, thinking I love what I do, but I need to have some type of control on what I'm doing myself and I am a huge huge, I'd say. I have a curiosity to tarot. So there's somebody in particular that I listened to. I love him.

Speaker 1:

He's based in the States and he was always saying you got to start a side hustler, what's your side hustle? And then you can sort of leave your main job once your side hustle is working. So I thought what can I do on the side? That's not going to impact on the fact that I can be available in an hour's time if QVC need me. So I thought, right, I've got a following already because I've been a television presenter there for a fashion brand and I had a nice sort of following on Facebook and Instagram and I somehow put it out there that I was doing this. I'd had my own bags anyway, that I'd been sourcing and collecting during the pandemic, and after the pandemic I went off to a fantastic place called Goodwood Revival with my husband, had a little trestle table literally a trestle table with a black velvet covering on it and I sold all the bags and I thought this is good.

Speaker 2:

There must be a bit of a market here. Did you know how to mark them up like? Did you know how to price them?

Speaker 1:

Yes, I was doing my research and looking and I also, you know, was thinking, okay, what have I paid? What's the market value, what's realistic? But I have to say, at Goodwood Revival the ladies were so delighted with this little selection and the prices didn't seem to be an issue. So I think I'd actually really done the research, okay, and they were being sold, you know, at the right price point. So after that, the little following that I had, I sort of put it out there, started to talk about what I was doing, word of mouth, literally. You know, no advertising at that point, it was just me marketing myself.

Speaker 1:

But then I love to talk, is probably your guess, so I chat anywhere. In fact my kids hate going out with me because it can take quite a long time if I stop and I start to talk. I've always got a business card and I'll always talk about bags, so it's right, right, all from there, really, and obviously pre-loved was really pushing itself up to the fore sustainability, this whole desire to actually wear pieces that actually somebody didn't want anymore and was going to be stopping that sort of that huge wave of waste. You know the waste is massive. So it was sort of this turn of event and it just sometimes, when something is meant to be, you don't have to work too hard at it. I've had so many different times where I've knocked on the door it won't open and I've pushed and, pushed and pushed and been really stubborn and it still won't open. But with this it flowed and luckily it continues to flow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, oh, my God, this is so exciting. I could talk about this all day. I'm chatty too. I had my seat moved all through elementary school purely for being disruptive, where it says talk successively in class, so I'm here for it. So the first bags you had you said were yours right? Yes, have a pretty good idea just within the States how the real, real works and other sites or enterprises like that and the amount of people that they hire to connect with other people who would have those bags to sell, get rid of, offload, the whole thing like that's a full time job. They have those jobs posted all the time and then an appraiser and then, especially like with entropy and lawsuits that go with everybody. Now, how are you able and clearly, because it's you and you're already trusted and validated how are you able to find more inventory? How did that work?

Speaker 1:

You know, every week I say to my husband oh my gosh, what happens if nothing comes next week? It just comes. You know, sometimes I think it's with the universe sort of looking down and it's a case of I have have, luckily, I've got a really loyal following. Buyers become sellers, sellers become buyers. Once you start to sell, it can be a little bit addictive and then you think, oh my gosh, what else am I not using that? I can get some more money, for people tell their friends I have a television commercial as well that fell out of nowhere. That was basically a client of mine and I said you know what you do. You should all I actually do television commercials, and I was like where does it?

Speaker 1:

air. It airs across different platforms um sky, so different channels on sky. So I did that last year, which was quite fun. I really really do a lot on Instagram, so it it's word of mouth. Our reviews are great. Thankfully, it keeps coming and I'm just very grateful that it does so every time I get new items like I had a Mulberry delivery this morning and it's so exciting just to go through them all, so it's really a joy. I always find you've got to. I've always said actually not find you need to do something that you love, because for me it's a 24 seven job. It's not a case of nine to five, but when you really do something, it becomes your life in a way. So it's not, it's not actual work. It's what I enjoy to do, Although I know I'm a little bit of a workaholic.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, you know, I think once you're a mom of multiples, that just becomes part of your day in and day out life. Like I can't sit still, because once you sit still, your mind starts to think I should be doing something else. What am I not doing? There's more things I can do. I think that's just by default, how we are, by function. How long and how much inventory do you keep at a time Like with your social following? Hi, I've got this new bag. Here's what it is. I mean, because you're so seasoned on QVC going on Instagram, it's essentially your private channel. How are you able to start integrating in like? Okay, now I have these bags. How do you go into the unique selling?

Speaker 1:

points of each one, I have to say. I mean, I'm on stories all the time and I'm daily doing content.

Speaker 1:

I think I've been trained and I do think QVC are amazing at training I speak to someone as if, in a way, they can't see it. So I have to get across. I have to get across very quickly the feeling of it. Obviously, I need to know every product, I need to understand it. I need to know the color, the name. I immediately show signs of where need to do that very transparently. I just talk. I mean, you can leave me in a room on my own and I will talk for hours.

Speaker 1:

I see you, I get that it's lovely to talk and share about it and maybe I don't know, I just connect with them.

Speaker 2:

So you know, based on what's going on in the market, are you able to touch upon trends or see that, okay, everybody's trying to offload these bags, so clearly the interest is waning. How do you see trends and handle it? Or is it just product comes and it comes and you sell it? I know at this point you must be discerning.

Speaker 1:

It is a case of products come and then I sell it. The only way that I can say I'm discerning to how I was in the beginning is I really find that because the items are photographed for the website, they need to photograph well. So I'm now more discerning to the quality of the wear. I mean, obviously pre-loved is lovely, but there can be more love in some pre-loved yeah, yeah Than others. And I'll also be very transparent to say to someone if you are someone that minds marks or scuffs, don't buy it. You know, maybe pre-loved is not for you. Or it could be a pre-loved bag that's been bought and left in its box and hasn't got any signs of wear. Then that's your pre-loved, that's fine, right, right, right right.

Speaker 1:

But I am, I'm definitely more discerning with the quality and especially if there is discoloration and I know that that's going to be a problem and, you know, translate in a negative way on the website. I won't take certain things on now and the only way I'll do something and I've done it a few times is not for the website. I call it a project bag. You know, sometimes project bag, that's an amazing Birkin, but it's really. You know, it's had a lot of love, but some people don't mind that because they want to have the Birkin. So yeah, way I might do a few project ones which tend to be more for the Instagrams as opposed to on the website.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that totally makes sense. 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 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've 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.

Speaker 2:

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. Have you seen trends in terms of which bags people because I'm sure, as a result of who you are, you must get requests like oh, I'm searching for this, I'm searching for that, especially with all the tariffs and people saying that there will be, and has already started to be, a huge uptick in retail prices of, obviously, you know, I mean Chanel, forget it. Chanel's jumped like, I think, 200% in terms of prices, but Loewe right now is so hot and all of these bags that you know were really hot in the 2000s or the noughts are making a resurgence. Are you able to start pinpointing trends that you can actually see based on the bags that you're getting?

Speaker 1:

No, not too much, I mean. I think also I have a certain demographic, my customers have a certain demographic. I don't think the majority of them are too trend-led In that way. I'm not seeing, oh, there's a certain trend as such. I know that there's always a demand for, let's say, the Fendi baguette bag and I don't think that's a trend. I just think that's sort of a mainstay. That said, there could have been something with Sex and the City whereby that might have pinged up and for a week that might have been the call-in Right, no-transcript, something of a boom. Well, there is a boom at the minute with the Louis Vuitton to Kashmir Akami collaboration, because obviously that was redone. So I have had a couple of like oh, I've got the multicolores in. There's a little bit of demand there. So sometimes that trend might be captured if it's just on the back of a release of the same designers currently versus when they first launched it.

Speaker 2:

Right. So it's funny that you mentioned the Chanel flap. I worked closely with Bloomingdale's a number of years ago when we were partnering with them with the Handbag Awards and one of the head of the fashion department, the DMM, had said to me and this was at Rebecca Minkoff's peak that she, referring to the customer with her first job, that she would spend her money on a Rebecca Minkoff morning after bag and as soon as she had a salary bump she would immediately go buy Chanel flap. That was what the trend was and I just saw a clip, because obviously we are all targeted that someone who was trying to see if they could justify spending $1,000 on a Chanel flap and then it showed over the years that went from $1,500 to $2,500 to now it's $10,000 for something that you know historically, years back could have been within a price point range, but you just couldn't justify it. So it's so interesting about how this market is going Right.

Speaker 1:

I listened to something that you said, which I found fascinating on a podcast and it was so true. I think you were talking to another Emily. I didn't think about that and I think it was. The question was about whether somebody would spend, let's say, $1,000 on a bag that's a designer that's not well known Versus I'm sure it was you, because I know I listened to this versus, let's say, a pre-loved luxury designer bag. Correct, all the way they do. They do do it. I see it myself. You know you've got that thousand dollars. What are you going to put it to? And pretty much it's going to be a pre-loved, you know, correct.

Speaker 2:

Correct, no, Pre-loved, and that is just the reality. That, you know, unfortunately puts all of these designers in a challenging spot because they don't have the orders to then be able to have economies of scale to price their bags accordingly. Therefore, if they want to have a markup or margin, it's got to be either razor thin or barely any. If they want to even get into the retail space, it's almost impossible. I want to talk a little bit about and I love that you brought this up your customer.

Speaker 2:

One of the biggest mistakes that so many designers and brands and people all together when starting a business is thinking they know their customer. And again, the designers I've worked with, the students I've taught, everybody thinks they're aspiring to this fabulous metropolitan city girl who is just, you know, having cocktails, living the big life, and she's just amazing. And I have had to educate and inspire and tell these desires. Go back and look at where your sales come from, Look at the zip codes where we're zip codes here, and then go back and look at the socioeconomics of that particular area and then see if that area has more than a Walmart, a church, a bar and a school and that people are essentially just buying it to make them feel good and to make them feel special, less so to be so impressive around you know as the gal on the town. So how are you able to recognize who she, he, they are amongst your customer demographic?

Speaker 1:

So I feel where my USP is is. I have a very personal service that I offer. Effectively, you get me at the end of the call or the email. So on Instagram I have grown a community of now over 25,000. Amazing Thank you with all of them.

Speaker 1:

So I pretty much know them now. I mean not all 25,000, but whoever's buying, I know them by name. I am a chatty person. I get to know them so obviously through that I can ascertain their age, their family, things like that. So I understand that she's similar to me and I'm in my mid-50s, so give or take 10 years, let's say either way. So in essence, I know I feel I know pretty much who the customer is.

Speaker 1:

Interestingly, I look at other platforms and other people and I think on my website should I be having a younger lady? Should I be having somebody who's in their 20s or 30s, or should it be me who is more of a mature lady? Because that's the customer and I kept with me until I retire myself because it felt a little bit more authentic. But equally, I've learned to ask my audience what do you like? Would you prefer to see somebody younger? What do you want?

Speaker 1:

So I feel I know who she is based on my communication with her, and that might well alter. It might well alter, but I'm not on TikTok at the minute, well, not hugely so. At the minute my platform is Instagram and and then below Instagram it's Facebook. So I think I've got a pretty good idea of who the customer is. But I continue to ask questions what would, what would you like to see? Would you like to see more of this or or that? And I've seen that from other very, very successful designers, vendors who engage with their community, because that's how you learn what they want and who they are most importantly, my God, I mean, that's so textbook, what is supposed to be done?

Speaker 2:

We just touched upon scale. Do you think, or what you do, that it is a hindrance? That essentially, it is all you and I know this personalized quality, you know that's amazing, I mean because I respond to everything and people typically are like oh my God, I can't believe it's you and I'm thinking who else is it going to be? Do you think at some point for you to grow or are you content with this personalized one-on-one?

Speaker 1:

I say it's all me. There's a team of five of us independently surrounding me, you know, who look after different elements of the business, but I am the face of the business. Yes, it may well be a hindrance because in a way, I've branded myself which is a double-edged sword. I think I did that based on the fact that I'm, to a degree I've had sort of I don't know 13 years now at QVC. So people do trust in the fact that they know who I am. I'm not some stranger in the corner of somewhere with their beautiful bags, right. I'm not some stranger in the corner of somewhere with their beautiful bags, right. There is a team behind me who have the administration element and the dispatches and all of that. But to front face, it is me.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I know I'm going to have to have another me. Definitely I couldn't cope with two of myself, but I do know there needs to be another me. But I'm also trusting that organically, it's going to happen with the right person. And it's taken a lot because I am a control freak. It's taken a lot for me to release the things I can release in terms of the packing and although I like to oversee that from a distance, but I have got a very patient young lady who works with me. So those elements I've managed to release, which is quite a big thing for a perfectionist Virgo, I'm guessing there. And sometimes I work with my lovely son, who did come into the business with me. He's my younger son. It was very challenging and now we work from a distance.

Speaker 2:

That's the safest way, real quick, before we wrap up. When you started this and I'm assuming this is the case, did you because personalization, the EV touch did you put in thank you notes? Did you put in some sort of you know email, like what was the final touch that you felt encapsulated, this whole EVie's loved experience of purchasing Everybody?

Speaker 1:

gets a handwritten note from me Everybody. Whether they can read it is another thing. My handwriting is horrific. You can get some antibiotics off it. To be fair, oh my God, Everybody has a handwritten note because I'm very old-fashioned in that. I think it's really important. I love sending cards and I wanted that to be a little bit of a standout point. So, yes, I will. You know, I'll send a little email if it's the first time, because I like to hear the journey. That's also very important. Did you find me through Instagram or a?

Speaker 2:

commercial.

Speaker 1:

Or where did you find me? But other than that, every single order I'd say pretty much I hope every single order will have a little personalized card from me, and actually I do have a really lovely little image of myself that was by an illustrator, so you'll see, it's, I'd like to say, a younger version of myself.

Speaker 2:

I think you're fabulous. I don't think anything needs to be younger, thank you. Thank you very much. Oh my goodness, evie, this has been an absolute delight. How can people find you, follow you and get their hands on an Evie Touched, pre-loved bag?

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you, I mean. I'd like to also point out, although we're based in UK, we ship everywhere, so we do. We love to ship across the pond as well. So, eviesprelovedcom you can actually visit the website and see a lovely selection, but definitely follow me on Instagram at Evies Preloved, we have ladies from the States, australia, all across Europe, so you can find me there and join our community.

Speaker 2:

And I just want to preface it's E-V-E-Y. That's Evie, that's because you're special, so this is fabulous. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me, emily. 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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