In case you’re looking for Part 1 and Part 3, just follow the links. With our new “Statement Makers” line about to debut, I thought it was a good time to do some reflecting – and also to create a place online where I can send people who ask, “How’d you get all this started?” (If you’d like a sneak peek of our Statement Makers, check out the new slide show on our Rebagz homepage.

Part 2 – Designs, Designs, Designs
When it comes time to design bags for the new season, I come up with several ideas, which I then sketch out in detail and have the first set of samples made. I often travel to the Philippines to supervise the revisions of the samples – ‘cause there are always lots of revisions.

I work with my agent over there to determine what’s not only fashionable but feasible as well, because sometimes wonderful ideas just don’t translate gracefully to real life. There’s my imagination and then there are the perils of execution. How smoothly can the corners really be sewn? How easily can the weave accommodate the curves I want? I usually start out with between 12 and 14 ideas, end up with 8 to 10 sketches, and then usually end up introducing about 2 to 5 new designs per season.

I never went to design school, by the way. You don’t need to, and you certainly don’t need an MBA, either. What you do need is to know how to draw and sketch. But even these skills I taught myself to do. There are so many people who have a great eye and terrific ideas, but the two things most vital to success are so often never even considered by up-and-comers, and those things are working hard and being a good listener – the former being even more vital than the latter. Yes, you need a feel for color and dimension, for proportion and for where trends are going, but so much more than that working hard is the only way to succeed in any field.

I did have one very frustrating design situation. I’d found an adorable rice sack decorated with the cutest panda I’d ever seen. I couldn’t wait to work with this “fabric” and knew we could sell thousands of handbags made from them. Then I found out the sacks were from a discontinued brand of rice and there were only a couple of hundred sacks left. After tearing a few chunks of hair out in frustration, I came up with the idea of creating a Limited Edition line – Rebagz L.E. – for situations like this. Our L.E. handbags celebrate the unique beauty and rarity of the Panda sack and others like it, and remind us that many things around us have limits too.

So when challenges like these present emerge, look for the opportunity inside the problem. There’s virtually always something there that can benefit you.

XOXO Marty