Eastern Spring 2009 : Page 9
Bringing Bags to Market Creating the Design: a year Before release, the Design teaM Creates a DetaileD teChniCal Drawing. seleCting CoMponents: the teaM seleCts the type, tanning MethoD anD Color of leather. linings are DesigneD anD ContraCteD. BuilDing the harDware: BuCkles, rings, rivets, Clasps anD stuDs are DevelopeD anD CustoM-MolDeD through an outsiDe venDor. Making the “proto”: teChniCal Drawings are sent to a hong kong ManufaCturer who Creates the prototype or “proto” in sCrap leather or Canvas. And what, exactly, is behind the “tsunami of handbag love”? Basically, it’s Hacker’s genius for melding style, function, quality, trouble-free comfort and longevity at a price that’s “not more than your rent.” While a bag like the Havana Hobo comes with a $500 price tag, Euro- pean luxury brands command $2,000 for equivalent quality and style. Carefully placed pockets and ingenious dividers hold cell phones, iPods, books, pens, laptops, baby bottles, passports, and travel and exercise clothes for busy women. Buttery leathers age effortlessly. Stylish linings make opening the bags a constant delight, and custom hardware combines beauty and utility. A customer blogs: “I’m in Hayden-Harnett heaven, with the soft, supple leather wafting around me.” Another says the catalog “reminds me why I go to the office each morning.” Hacker sees her bags as an investment and trust: “We wouldn’t put anything out there that we wouldn’t use and love for years to come.” Tags in her store bear a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but until they speak to the imagination are not yet beautiful.” Toni Hacker has married imagina- tion to utility, creating the “beautiful objects of use” she admired in her fashion-struck Manchester childhood while building her business on integrity and community. sliCing the proto: the Design teaM exaMines the proto, soMetiMes Doing “Bag surgery” to refine the shape. getting it right: a seConD or thirD proto is testeD anD tweakeD until the Bag feels perfeCt in Design, funCtion anD CraftsManship. showing the saMples: finisheD saMples arrive at the Manhattan showrooM. wholesalers froM arounD the worlD exaMine the Bags anD plaCe their orDers. Making sales projeCtions: BaseD on wholesale orDers, inDustry trenDs, their own sales- anD CustoMer- knowleDge, hayDen-harnett plaCes an orDer with the ManufaCturer. “ChristMas Morning”: in 90-120 Days, the finisheD Bags arrive. “it’s like ChristMas,” says haCker. eaCh Bag unDergoes MetiCulous quality Control. the Design staff is alreaDy working on the next season’s line. Eastern 9
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