Fashion career is in the bag

Young area designer is award finalist

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by KAYLEIGH KULP Lusby independent handbag designer Rebecca Allen holds a replica of the bag which made her a finalist in a global competition called the Independent Handbag Designers Awards. She’s standing in front of her ‘‘trend board,” on which she posts pictures of upcoming trends from magazines that help guide her designs. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

The 22-year-old Lusby entrepreneur might be a little closer to her goal since she became a finalist in the second annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards in the category of Best Student Made Handbag. The category received 75 applications from designers around the globe.

Having graduated in May from the Miami International University of Art and Design, the recognition has given her national attention and sent some boutiques and shops requesting her accessory line, Rebecca, in their stores, though no deals have been formally made, Allen said.

Finalists for the awards presented their bags at a New York event in June at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan, which more than 500 members of the fashion industry attended. Other categories include Best Handmade Handbag, Most Socially Responsible Handbag and Best Handbag in Overall Style and Design.

The bag receiving IHDA recognition is part of Allen’s ‘‘Overgrown” collection, made of sea-moss green lambskin leather with hand-cut flower details. It was inspired by finals week.

‘‘I was so stressed out that I though, what is this feeling? I thought, this is growing on me,” she said.

She was up against a red satin hobo bag, a red cowhide envelope clutch, an aluminum tote with a magnet close and a black oversized canvas tote, which won the category.

‘‘Out of the 75 applicants, it was really to give credit to people like Rebecca who are innovators and are really trying to do something new and different,” said Emily Blumenthal, founder of the IHDA. ‘‘There are so many people out there trying to start their own lines. The people who do it well, those are the people who stand out. I think the detailing is what’s unique about [the bag] and her choice of color. Most people don’t have the courage to use a color like that. It was very well made. It’s really special.”

The awards were judged in the preliminary round by the staff of Handbag Designer 101, a New York City-based online trade magazine that sponsors the awards. The staff is freelance writers and commentators who are experts in the fashion accessory industry. Judges for the final round included well-known fashion experts such as Ann Watson, fashion director for Henri Bendel; Lisa Smilor, associate director for the Council of Fashion Designers of America; Dani Stahl, style director for Nylon magazine; Rebecca Weinberg and David Zyla, nationally renowned costume designers; and Julia Poteat, assistant professor at Parsons The New School for Design.

Allen found her passion for accessories on a year off between a two-year stint at Towson University, where she studied costume design, and her transfer to the Miami design school, where she studied the accessory design business. After making a few samples through a manufacturer in China, teachers at the school saw potential in her knack for whimsical, high-quality designs. Allen began working for a small shoe company in Miami where she learned the ropes — assisted in the design, pricing, public relations and Web site development. She started up her company when she graduated earlier this summer and came back to her parents’ Calvert home, where her mom, dad and sister help her with designing and number-crunching.

‘‘I loved Miami but I always knew I’d come back up north [to be close to New York City]. For now, starting out, you have such low costs. I really did not think that after I graduated I’d be starting my own line,” Allen said. ‘‘The opportunity just fell into my lap.”

After she became a finalist for the IHDA, she said, ‘‘It just exploded. I want people to view my handbag line more as a company than student design. It’s my whole life. It really is. That’s all I do. I absolutely love what I do.”

Allen soon had to locate a manufacturing company in China, recommended by some of her former teachers, that could produce her products affordably and efficiently. Having a sample handbag made in New York could cost well over $1,000 but only about $400 in China.

‘‘I tend to design super complex things,” Allen said of the high production costs.

Right now Allen’s design forte is handbags and clutches made of patent leather and ostrich and snake skins.

‘‘I have a little secret obsession with patent leather,” she said.

But the designer loves going to fabric stores and is inspired by ‘‘crazy” patterns and art.

‘‘I think that really motivates my choices of design,” she said, in addition to help from her 19-year-old sister, Katie, who has a totally different style she brings to the table. Allen also regularly posts to her ‘‘trend board” — a bulletin board on which she posts pictures of upcoming trends from magazines that help guide her designs.

Allen’s clutches will cost about $90 and her handbags anywhere from $100 to $400 and will be geared toward sales in specialized online stores and boutiques. She hopes her target audience will be the woman who probably buys one nice handbag a year and decides to splurge on a ‘‘Rebecca” bag.

‘‘With the economy the way it is now, you have to provide something that people with money will want,” Allen said. ‘‘I think my main niche is selling to companies that offer a product people cannot find in a department store.”

Marcia Gomez, public relations director for Miami International University of Art and Design, said she spotted the ‘‘Overgrown” bag in a department chair’s office because it was Allen’s final project.

‘‘I met [Allen] last semester when she was doing her final quarter. I fell in love with one of her bags. I asked if I could buy it. I got in touch with her and had her make me the [Overgrown] bag. She’s very, very talented. Her bags are very girly, they’re very creative and she incorporates a lot of different elements. The leather itself is supple and beautiful. It’s something you cannot [easily] find. I’m a huge fan,” she said. ‘‘It’s a fresh concept. If she plays her cards right and works hard I think she’ll be able to make a living out of it.”

Allen said she’s learned a lot on her own about being a businesswoman in the last couple of months.

‘‘I spend about two to three days picking out colors, sketching. The rest of it is talking to the factories, finding people to source materials and crunching numbers. I definitely spend more time thinking about designing than thinking about business,” she said.

Allen hopes to have her line full and complete by next spring and in online stores and Washington, D.C., area boutiques by next fall. She’s now planning trips to national trade shows and a day trip to the District to check out the market and make sales contacts, and possibly even Southern Maryland boutiques.

‘‘Right now I can’t compete with Prada or Gucci. I would like to be able to sell a little closer to home,” she said.