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

What It Really Takes to Launch a Handbag Brand in 2024 đź’Ľđź‘ś| Emily Blumenthal & Nancy Forman

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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Think launching a handbag brand is as easy as designing a pretty product? Think again. In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, we’re joined by industry expert Nancy Forman, whose decades of experience—from Bloomingdale’s to Accessory Think Tank—have made her a trusted voice in fashion strategy, manufacturing, and merchandising.

Nancy doesn’t sugarcoat it. Today’s market demands much more than a great idea—it requires a plan, a factory, and a deep understanding of your customer before you even produce your first bag. From hidden development costs to managing trade show expectations, her insights are a must-hear for any serious designer.

đź’ˇ Key Takeaways
 đź‘ś Beyond the Sketch: Why product development starts long before design—and how skipping steps can sink your brand.
🌍 Small Runs, Big Potential: How Nancy’s Romanian factory allows brands to produce as few as 3–6 bags per style.
♻️ Smart Sustainability: Why leather vs. non-leather isn’t so black and white—and how to think critically about eco claims.

Whether you’re launching your first line or refining your supply chain, this conversation will shift your mindset and sharpen your strategy.

🎧 Listen now.

Our Guest: Nancy Forman is a veteran merchant, fashion consultant, and founder of Accessory Think Tank. She helps emerging brands build smart, scalable businesses through hands-on product development, manufacturing expertise, and retail insight.

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. 



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Speaker 1:

It used to be easy to create a bag. I mean, you and I both know we lived it. Take a brand, fix it up, change it around and it can be a million or $8 million in three years. Raw consumer demands and, in the retailer, ever more so the consumer a real, clear understanding of the brand, its values, its positioning, its reason for being its consumer, social responsibility.

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, 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.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the Handbag Designer 101 podcast. We have Nancy Foreman with us today from the Accessory Think Tank. Nancy, how far do we go back, how many years with the Z?

Speaker 1:

I had heard of you and your success in the initial Handbag Award creation. How many years ago was that? Oh my God, 2007. So I met you in nine or 10, when my clients were getting to win awards. Yeah, I had wanted to meet you, that's so funny.

Speaker 3:

So you were a merchant by trade. I mean, I've had you speak at my class, We've done talks before but just for the sake of this podcast and our new listeners, what's your background? I love hearing this because it so speaks to why you are so good at what you do.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, emily, and really it's a thrill to be talking with you. I always love a lot and you're quite inspiring. So thank you for having me To share as succinctly as possible. I am a merchant. It will always be ingrained in who I am personally and professionally. I started my career with Blinney Nails and was with Blinney Nails for 14 years in merchandising and buying, and that set the tone for myself, recognizing my great love of products and my talent and skill in understanding the marketplace, the competitive landscape and merchandising. So I am self-taught on the design aspects over the course of about 17 years, yet still always apply my thinking as a merchant and a very, very valid understanding of the competitive landscape, both in the aspect of how a consumer thinks, to how a buyer thinks, to how to maximize existing and future opportunities.

Speaker 3:

What do you think the biggest mistake the designers we've worked with Like?

Speaker 1:

what do you think some of those things going in, Because I have a laundry list of those Managing expectations in regard to how to literally start from point A to B to C, understanding the challenges of development and costs by country, meaning I can produce in New York or Los Angeles and essentially oversee it and do it in more real time, yet what are those costs and how will that affect my total cost? Or I can go overseas and potentially create something and then have 1,000 or 2,000 units in a warehouse. So one this initial understanding of expectation of product development and also the real understanding of managing expectation of growth, as over and over again I have seen, brands who get to the finish what they think the finish line is, which is product development, end up at a trade show before they're ready, which is a very big investment, don't have the success that they want and close their business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, you and I both have seen people who have hired experts, whatever they are, because there are plenty of people out there that do what you and I both do. Well, I don't do what you do. So I just want to make that very clear, because you're a one of one, nancy. Nobody does what you do as well as you in terms of product development, trend and so forth. But they take someone, or someone takes them on and promises them the sun, moon and stars, charges them an offensive amount, and then they have, you know, one bag for our conversation's sake, one bag to show for it. And then they come to you with like, well, I don't have much money, but I have this one bag and I spent 20,000 developing one bag. Why am I not in sacks? And it's like, oh damn, like I could tell you a thousand reasons why you're not in sacks, because there's 100,000 people just like you.

Speaker 3:

Number one. Number two you've blown through your money. Number three product development costs money, whether you do it on your own or you do it with someone like you, right? And number four understanding your customer, designing into that price point, understanding where they shop, why they shop, what their needs are from, ethnographically speaking, socioeconomically, geographically, all of that. But to develop a product that people will actually want and need, it's a process and it requires a lot of research and, as far as I'm concerned, that research is free. It's free Like you can do this research without spending a lot of money, comparatively to how much you spend developing said product Would you agree?

Speaker 1:

Yes, and also there's a way to approach research in a very strategic way and also recognizing it is as a merchant. I would say it begins and ends with products strategy. The looking at the competitive landscape really goes beyond what shapes, what colors, but also really looking at supply chain transparency, consumer social responsibility, where the materials come from, how they're made, who makes them right. So it's way more intense in regards to a comprehensive understanding of brand strategy increase. So that's also how I've evolved. I mean, when I talk about powering shape all day long, the reality is that a brand today has the opportunity to also navigate and create through a very comprehensive strategy of consumer social responsibility and supply chain, material and who's making it right. And I say that I have created a small batch women-owned strategy to help navigate for startups so that they don't go out of business.

Speaker 3:

What key points would you suggest in terms of strategy that you've developed or templatized? What would you start with?

Speaker 1:

Okay, in regards to the strategy which I suggest for any brand and I feel like this is a method that we've put together and it has been well received and recognized is, over and over again, a brand will come to me and say what bags are we making Right? What jewelry are we making? What decorative home are we making? First and foremost, we step back and we understand the essence and soul and ethos of the brand, positioning, the DNA. Yeah, it used to be easy to create a bag. I mean, you and I both know we lived it. Take a brand, fix it up, change it around and it can be a million or $8 million in three years.

Speaker 1:

Raw consumer demands and, in the retailer, ever more so, the consumer a real, clear understanding of the brand, its values, its positioning, its reason for being its consumer, social responsibility and, as I've said minutes back, supply chain transparency. Transparency and that the product is made ethically right. You know, over and over, alternative brands that move away from leather. Just because it is not leather does not mean that it's a best off environmental approach to development. The other thing I found is that there are many brands you say work, sustainable. Yeah, no, it's 100% sustainable. Yes, and progress. So to really communicate that way and in creating this brand ethos or blueprint, it keeps every department on the same page, because we are startups, we don't have the luxury of having an organization and building where we can meet each week or every day to talk about where we're going from visual to Instagram, to website, to logo, to font system. So this deck keeps all the independent contractors on the same page and very often is a catalyst in opening the door to really inspire manufacturing partners or future partners who want to get behind the brand.

Speaker 1:

So that's one thing. And then also, as you asked, in regards to what are the biggest mistakes, as you touched on, it's this managing expectation and if I hire this person and pay them this much money for a logo or a website or an Instagram strategy or social media or a product for that matter, and I really think that it is a process of a clock and all the arm movement of each of the times or sections are your partnerships that move together and that everybody should be committed to the outcome of the brands. Yeah right, best of the brand as it launches and its recognition, not hiring a partner or a strategist or a logo designer who wants their page to go up and is not involved Because a brand, especially when it launches, there has to be a team that is proactive to the fact that maybe the colors are off, maybe the logo needs to be resized, maybe the product is too expensive, maybe the Instagram is not working. You have to have a team that is committed after you launch.

Speaker 3:

Well, a couple of things. One I call that basement to Beyonce that's my hashtag that they get a little bit of attention. Or designers pay someone and automatically the assumption is that this person is going to be the panacea of my brand. Right Dollar and a dream. I have an idea. I'm a creator, I'm a designer. Now I've employed someone who's basically going to convert these thoughts, dreams, hopes and sketches and turn me into a viable brand so I can tell people I am a real designer sold at retail. So that's one. We both know that that's fallacy at its best. Number two not everybody has the luxury or the wherewithal to find a Nancy, so you know to do all that on their own. We want to kind of decrypt how and what that looks like. So if I'm a handbag designer and I've created my first bag and I paid $5,000 at a minimum for a local manufacturer per se domestic to create my first sample, what do you as a merchant do with that from there? Like if someone comes to you and say that 5k is pretty extreme.

Speaker 3:

I always say 5k because nobody gets their first bag right and if you go to these manufacturers for sampling, it's the lowest hanging fruit of customer where you could say what do you not like, what do you want changed, and, lo and behold, you get charged again and again and again and again.

Speaker 3:

So the sample might not be, but by the time you're done you've dropped a minimum of 5K right. Another point is an NDA non-disclosure agreement. It is always a tell for new designers or people who are a little bit too green and it can come back and bite them in terms of being put at the bottom of the production list or being charged that much more. Is giving an NDA to a retailer, giving an N have to show what you've done in order to get discovered, noticed, conversation, and if you're showing up as a quote, unquote, nobody with an NDA, damn. I know I can like put you at the bottom of my production list because you don't know, or I can charge you that much more because you don't know. And as a retailer or a buyer, I'm not going to even take your call because I don't know you and I don't care.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think an NDA with a retailer is something that I I've seen it, I have.

Speaker 1:

So I can't. When it comes to an NDA, I think it's the approach there's nothing wrong with an NDA being signed and it's just a reminder for all of us and I think it's the approach with which the NDA is delivered and communicated, because that's fair, frankly, because my clients have NDA signed all the time and it's really the delivery and communication. Listen, I understand your level of expertise. It's just an industry reminder and most often the manufacturer who is in place is used to it. I will say I have seen, not within the US but overseas literally submitted something to a jewelry manufacturer and saw it was a design I developed literally by design. Yeah, completely knockoff. So it's got to be done Right, often 99%, no problem, but I don't have an issue with it.

Speaker 1:

In regards to your question on manufacturing, it's all about budget and time and experience. Yeah, so a brand or designer needs to have that in-person experience to create their products and 5K is within the budget. So be it. They're ordinary manufacturers in New York. I know throughout the world by looking in a bag about how much it's going to cost in sample production, moq landed. So ultimately, also if backing up the brand or the client designer really understands. Before back to me taking a look at the Rubik's Cube of strategy. Right, yeah, and that, again, is also what should be done before a product is made. Yeah, look at the options and the pros and cons. Sometimes the 5K is the right choice because of time. Is money, right? You know frustration, yeah, so you really have to look at that as a total to make the decision, because we develop that yeah, there's so much to cover right now.

Speaker 3:

But even in terms of sustainability, are you working with brands that are still wanting leather? Because I work with, actually recently within my handbag designer, incubator designers that were hell bent on keeping leather and having customers understand the beauty, the joy, the seafield touch, that tangibility factor of a leather bag. How do you approach that versus, you know, from a sustainable element of saying no, no, no, no, no, you know, like, let's make sure that because you can't guarantee that the piece goods are dead stock you can't, nor should you in some capacity or cases. You know, how do you integrate that into the assortment?

Speaker 1:

Well, why I believe that there's incredible beauty in artisanal aspects and, in a sense, approach to well lived products that come from leather. Yeah, I have such incredible relationships with so many tanneries and owners of tanneries, so understanding their positioning, how they manufacture their tanning processes, so agree completely that there is a place for leather and then there is a place for alternative materials and the reason for those reflects the positioning and ethos of who the brand is, what they stand for, yeah, where they want to land and where they want to make it right exactly person. No one answer and frankly, there is. There are incredible strategies and interpretations happening at both weights alternative materials and with leathers, everybody wants to be better. You know, obviously, if it's a designer who is truly, truly committed to the authenticity of all beings, right, then they're not going to use leather, right, and there's a place for both.

Speaker 3:

If you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and you didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer 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.

Speaker 2:

I'm Emily Blumenthal handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother and this is the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass.

Speaker 3:

Over the next 10 classes, I will break down everything you need to know to make, manufacture and market a handbag brand.

Speaker 3:

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. For the past 20 years, I've been teaching at the top fashion universities in New York City. 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 IpBag.

Speaker 3:

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 P'm cast to get 10% off your masterclass. Today. We're kind of jumping around in terms of all this, but what do you see in terms of production factories, countries that people may not know of or think of in terms of getting their bags made? And do you have thoughts on China? No, China. Like I know, so many brands right now are just using their China factories for sampling, but not production.

Speaker 1:

I have found and find because we produce throughout the United States and India, different parts of India and China, italy, romania, portugal and more that.

Speaker 3:

Every country has its own and also has their ability for domestic production.

Speaker 1:

I will tell you that China for such incredible relationships and partnerships, both in production and material development, and jewelry and decorative home in China and then in Europe. So you know, it really comes down to again where does the brand want to be in regards to price, quality and MLQ? Right, because there is no reason to develop in China if you're not going to produce there. I mean, to your point, you have people sampling. Well, the handwork is extraordinary, yeah, right, yet there's a lot of writable. The biggest hand manufacturing in the world is in Vietnam, right, the reality is that the MOQ is what? 1,000, 3,000. So we can't do that.

Speaker 1:

But you know, again, we produce in Seoul, korea, all over. And frankly, I also feel and do this that in order to be informed from the beginning, one of the first things to do is also look and say again if I produce it here, this is where it's going to land in regards to MQ, price, quality and timing versus here. And it may be that I start here, right, yet when I'm producing, I'm paying a higher price. Yet I know that my goal is to hit this retail, so I want it to be, so it sells. My margins are smaller, I grow my volume, I already know where I can go, so that if retailer X says Emily, we absolutely love what you're doing, your prices are too high and you don't already know where you can go.

Speaker 3:

Right, what's MOQ? Just to be clear. Okay, and in terms of landed price, now there's a variety of pricing. Right, there's trade on board, which is FOB. There's landed duty paid, which is landed LDP. With your designers, how do you typically do the pricing when you're saying landed? So how would you think about that?

Speaker 1:

What happens is internationally. You know there's a freight forwarder that manages, so that there's less of a surprise, right? The thing that's been very challenging today is shipping. Yep, shipping costs are outrageous, yep. So, again, when you're sinking through the $5,000 bag to be made in your city, right, yep, and the shipping costs literally, over time, equal that. So, again, being really clear in the short and longer term on what is going to come up, right, you make the right decision. I would love to talk about what's happening in the market. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

No, I would. I actually wanted to because I want to cover, you know, a sweet spot of pricing where you think for different markets, and then also make sure when we wrap up, we speak about colors, trends, silhouettes, where we think things are going, because you know, I want to make sure that we have you on at least once every three months just to get the Nancy update, because this covers, I mean, right now, everything we're speaking about is pretty timeless. You know, to learn how to create a bag from sketch inception to shelf, to repeat business, to customer acquisition, to sustainability, to strategy, like there's a whole kind of you could draw boxes and arrows for what the correct pathway to do it.

Speaker 1:

Well, I also feel that being an entrepreneur or a new designer or even an established designer, who needs a wake up, right, who needs a wake up is in reference and I'm really thinking about the clock or pie and you really have to put a strategy together as an entrepreneur to where so many hats in order to really understand. So it's also almost like within a month on to ensure that you devote time to sales strategy, right, and how do you do that and how that leads to understanding the competitive landscape and other brands and identifying the stockists list.

Speaker 3:

So sorry, I'm going to get me started on my sexy SWAT, which I live for, and doing a competitive analysis and oh, wow, yeah, we definitely need to do more than one conversation, but let's just move over right now to pricing and sweet spots and where you think that's going.

Speaker 1:

Contemporary, modern luxury is really my expertise. I know that there's mass and off price and volume. I know the levels in the meetings. So I'm not going to talk about those competitive $59, $69, $99, $199 prices, because it is not my market. Yet it is sell to the masses, sell to the classes, sell to the classes, live at the masses. Nothing wrong with that. I am very, very focused on the radiation and creation of something that doesn't exist and then try to navigate and create that in quality and then communication to the consumer and the retailer, and with that then the positioning is more expensive on every level. Yet the minimums that one has to invest are controlled right. It's not just what you make, it's what you spend Right and what you make you can have a healthy business. You could be a million dollar business and be profitable, and you could be a million dollar business.

Speaker 3:

So what you said, contemporary, modern per se. What retailer would that fall into and what sweet spot would you speak to?

Speaker 1:

with that? That would be a suffragette. I was in London last month suffragettes. I was in London last month. It's very similar to Verdor or Saks whereby joplin is really like next level assortment of product near mass, and yet there's a contemporary for it.

Speaker 3:

So one of our clients what retailer in the US would you say that would fall in?

Speaker 1:

I'm sorry, I was thinking about the success of one of our clients to get Nordstrom. I love Nordstrom, love, love, love, love Nordstrom and their willingness to take a chance on newness. Yeah Well, anything else, although Nordstrom, I feel, has a broader assortment of newness. I think those two obviously Saks, but those are more challenging, right, and they take a little bit longer.

Speaker 3:

And then, of course, specialty stores Right and I think, don't sleep on them.

Speaker 1:

People feel shocked. I actually love working with the specialty stores Me too. The feedback, the willingness to take a chance, the willingness to pay up front, and really throughout the country, there are tastemakers who really understand their customer, whether it's in Iowa, oklahoma, alabama, palm Beach, naval, florida, baltimore, chicago, and I continue to follow the stores through signing up for their marketing emails. Yeah, you following those key stores on Instagram. Yeah, those key merchants on LinkedIn. I have immense respect for those specialty stores that have been able to develop curated appointments and really be a tastemaker for their customers.

Speaker 3:

So what price point would you say? That would be A sweet spot.

Speaker 1:

Oh, it's $4.95 to $7.95.

Speaker 3:

$7.95 would be for a full leather, or not even necessarily full leather.

Speaker 1:

Leather. The thing is, we were analyzing this the other day with the factory, our small factory, and I'm working at a bag made in leather and non-leather. Right, right, actually, because now leather, we're really using new alternative, best-of materials that are more expensive to make. Yeah, it's less bio-based percents, so they're a bit expensive a meter. One of them is 35 dollars, wow, wow, so really almost equal to leather. Yet the consumer understanding that, right, so you can take, just have to be careful. I think I know there is still an exception by most consumers that leather has more value.

Speaker 3:

Yet look at Stella right, right, but I could go back and forth on this. Because I buy into sustainability, I understand that I totally on the same page with you. However, there's a smaller number of customers that at least that can afford that price point. That will make sure that that's their core driving force for purchasing that product. So my opinion was always, if you're going to have that, it should be part of your assortment, not all of your assortment. In terms of the materials, because at least you should see, you know, take a temperature check to see how does your customer react to that.

Speaker 1:

And I have and do you know? There I was looking at the other day unless that's the DNA of your brand exclusively.

Speaker 3:

So you know that's the other side. In terms of where you think color is going and silhouette, this is like my favorite part. When I was on a call with a retailer that is lower priced it was interesting to hear about. You know, hands-free still super important. Crossbody still super important. Clutch not so much, but that's not their customer. You know, clutch, in my opinion, goes much more specialty or mass or high end. It's kind of like if you're going into a certain retailer, you're not going there to buy a party bag. You want that party bag to be either super cheap or super expensive or super novelty. My opinion. So, in terms of color and silhouette, where do you think things are going in terms of what you've seen?

Speaker 1:

So I want to say and communicate this is Microsoft being self-taught on development and design.

Speaker 3:

I think you have to move past by saying self-taught, because at this point you're an industry expert, like you're already validated.

Speaker 1:

From the design process, getting caught up in fall, winter, this spring, summer, these colors and I need to create this color store where they're peering towards one's teeth and that by the time I get to market I look like a markdown, right. So it's one thing if you're a bigger brand, but if you're a newer brand, you know what you talk about. Color and let's talk about it, and I'm going to share. The reality is is you put a color palette together that reflects an ethos on your product yet that also has legs that can sell winter, spring, summer and fall? Thank God, you said that that's reality, okay. And so then you say well then, don't I look like everybody else? Well then, figure out a way, just like I always say, it's like a bookshelf and a shorter door over tier, okay, so take a chance on a couple of color stories or textile stories that you communicate around it, but make sure you have a manufacturing partner that works with you. That will make twos, threes, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I will say having lived this, where I wanted to go to market with an assortment in a very strong color palette and had not been able to do it in New York due to pricing China through the MOQ. I said to myself I've got to fix this. So I opened a little factory so we now have the ability to do this. So I've resolved that you have your own factory, now a factory partner in europe. We're small. Back what country?

Speaker 3:

romania um this, wow, that's epic. Nancy, nancy, nancy, nancy. Wow, I can't wait to share your information at the end because wow.

Speaker 1:

For bags. We're moving into exploration for other categories of hair accessories. I'll bet Clothing, but it was really out of my frustration of. Also, I cannot take out a client when you can't get their bags made. Well, I don't want to go through this challenge of a investment of 50 or 60K or 80K in the US with the dyes, the MLQs, and tie up those dollars when we have to take those dollars and split them evenly between logo, visual identity development. Yeah, so we did it. So that's definitely made things much easier. We do real-time scenes with the factory. What's the MOQ? 6, 3, 12.

Speaker 3:

Wow. So instead of the designer saying, okay, I'm going to make this all neutral, or I'm going to do black, brown and oxblood, and now they have an opportunity to do a short run collection of green, hot pink, orange, yellow, just for, or at least develop once. Because the problem is, is economies of scale right? Like if you're producing green bags, on your end it's going to cost you a lot more because you're producing that much less, but meanwhile you can't put that to the customer. So then what? So that's always the pickle, because whenever I analyze and talk to people about analyzing brands and a brand's health is counting how many pop-up colored bags they have within their assortment- it's a really delicate balance, right?

Speaker 1:

You look at the success of any great brand who stands for, identifying their strong item and then, from that, pulling that out and communicating to the customer on whether it be through size, through an impact. It doesn't just have to be like color, it doesn't have to be the rainbow. It might be that you know that your communication and choice of color story is very reflective of a trip to the country whereby the way that the truth, this love, has set shades of oranges. You know it's also like the authenticity of where you're making your choices of development and how you communicate that. Yeah, yeah, even still, the reality is is we're neutral, always sells, and yet we do need that impact of storytelling and I was insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. I know what it means. I know what the costs are to create a brand and, yes, products, wonderful, but what inferior images, half-assed logo, website. That doesn't work. It's just. And also I've been pretty over the years and recently and always I'm part of every aspect of what the client does and there's excellence all over. I'm just saying is can you afford it If your proposal for a logo, you know, or a website 50K, well, no right, but it's not instigating for agencies that are able to do it. It's the same thing as when I left Lemmy Nails and started my makeup brands right, I hired the PR company that represented people. I thought being in a magazine was going to do it. It's managing right. And so we also now have a built out for many clients logo, website, fund system, visual identity, and it's incredible, I'll bet. Yeah, it sounds amazing. Let's go back to product, because that's the fun part.

Speaker 1:

So, in regards to and I felt this for a while I feel that the earthiness you know, as we know, the freshness of the consumer becoming more casual, right, you know, before COVID, you know how women dressed, and then we were stuck and now we're getting dressed up. Yet we have a real connectivity to nature and earth, earth. So the idea of the colors of nature, meaning that you could choose a palette that is, shades of matte, shades of green, like right, like that would be your step and you don't need to do one tan. I'm not saying that's right, but I really feel very strongly about chocolate. I'm obsessed with chocolate and you're gonna see it. I mean to me really fresh and a beautiful alternative to blacks. And then, from a color palette perspective, I think I still feel that shades of green are better, just less acid, yeah, but super excited about that, you know. And ultimately, again, there's beautiful colors across all spectrums. What makes sense for that person's brands?

Speaker 3:

So, just because we only have a couple minutes left, what are your silhouettes to watch? What do you think are on their way out? Because I don't want to take too much more of your time, because we'll close in on an hour here, or 45 minutes.

Speaker 1:

Sure, I mean logic and reality is, is that we know? You know since the beginning of time for us that a smart tote let's face a month, a smart tote, whether it's targeting working woman, a mom, you know that there is some niche for a smart tote. At the same time, novelty and when I'm talking novelty, I'm not then saying that it has to be crystallized and embroidered, but really smart, smart bag shapes.

Speaker 3:

That's right, that's what I'm doing right now like really coming out with something beautiful.

Speaker 1:

I really am quite inspired by hobos yeah, not a hobos. Yeah, not a 1990s 2003. Yeah, kind of casual cross body hands-free really works with what's happening in, ready to wear. And then I'm quite excited about travel because there's, you know, like when I look back to travel brand that we created together with a client and the feedback from a very senior person day of launch, you know so many people are traveling. So it's the idea of backpack. Yeah, you know the utilitarian aspect of backpack, but for my market or for doesn't mean all my clients are doing this, but some level of really kick at really beautiful novelty, the casual sophistication of some sort of crossbody messenger, phobo, yep and such is.

Speaker 3:

That's amazing. Well, nancy, thank you so much for taking your time Again. You are going to be our regular in terms of we're getting updates with Nancy. Where can we find you? How can people find you? How can people find you follow you? Why do we get back to everything, nancy?

Speaker 1:

My company is the Accessory Think Tank. We more now than accessories, since we're in our 18th year, but the company Accessory Think Tank. My email is Nancy at the Accessory Think tank and my Instagram is at accessory think tank.

Speaker 3:

Amazing, nancy, thank you. Thank you so much. Well, stay tuned and thanks for joining us on the Handbag Designer 101 podcast and more to come. Thanks, guys, have a good one.

Speaker 2:

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

Host