A Year of Learning

The biggest lesson I've learned this year is that good design takes time, and you can't rush the process.

This may seem obvious, but it's easy to forget when brands around you are launching 4-6 new collections every year and you're struggling to perfect just one item. 

When working on the Linnea tote, I spent 5 full months perfecting the weight and functionality of the bag. My pattern engineer and I worked together to make lots of little changes - adding structure in calculated pressure points, choosing a thinner lining material, testing three different interior pocket configurations, changing the rigid shoulder straps to flexible, flat ones, and adding a key leash. 

For this collection, I spent 4 months testing four new lining materials. For each one, we had to source the material, create a sample, and then wear test for a few weeks. And in the middle of all that, we restocked our Linnea tote in Latte.

But taking our time means we now have two brand new bags added to our small collection, and I'm happy to say there isn't a single thing I would change about them. I'm so grateful for all of your support, patience, and feedback throughout this process. Your lovely emails always make my day.

The second lesson I learned: Everything will take longer.

I thought making a product would be straightforward. Choose a material, find a factory, make a product. Right?

The reality is, demand for sustainable materials is low, which makes them hard to find and expensive to produce. And because demand is low, most materials are made to order. The ultrafiber we use typically takes 4-5 weeks to be made, depending on how busy our factory is.

And that was just the beginning. I wanted to make sure every single ingredient that went into our bags - the hardware, the glue, the edge paint, even the thread - was ethically sourced and toxin free. The edge paint took months to find, and even then had to be reformulated twice to work with the ultrafiber.

Factories are also wary of new brands. New brands are risky. Especially new brands like us that wanted to order just a few hundred units. It wasn't unfriendly by any means, it's just how factories have learned to survive. The fast fashion churn and burn model, with its razor thin margins, is a race to the bottom and most factories are just trying to make it through another year. But it shouldn’t be this way. Factories need brands, and brands need factories. It's my hope that we can collectively shift away from fast fashion, and towards sustainable manufacturing practices and supporting one another. 

For all brands and factories that want to do things more sustainably, the cards are stacked against you. Raw materials are more expensive. Ingredients are hard to source. Manufacturing takes longer. But as a brand, it's our responsibility to persist and push the industry towards more sustainable methods. 

The third lesson: Put people and the planet first.

Put a little more care, a little more thought, and a little more love into every decision you make and you'll already be doing more than a lot of companies. So ask questions. Find out where your ingredients are coming from, how they were made, and who made them. Be picky. If it doesn’t meet your standards, create demand for something better. And if you are able to, spend a little more to make a little less. The planet will thank you.

Thank you for joining us <3