My husband, Rian, and I launched rian handbags in 2004. Since that time we have switched gears a bit and now have a men’s line that is stealing the show. The women’s is being revamped and the current style is a limited edition inspired by our travels that have brought us to where we are now. We take a lot of time with each design to ensure that the function aspect meets the fashion aspect. It’s important to us to create a product that looks great, but also one that is functional. We pay a lot of attention to the details. We hand select all our materials each season.

Rian and I were dating at the time and as we began to dream about our future we decided we wanted to create a business that we could do together. On a napkin at our favorite breakfast spot in Seattle, rian handbags was born. Something interesting about our current line is that Rian drew all the illustrations and there were no graphic alterations to his designs. The originals will be something we cherish forever.

Most of our nightmares happen in production. One time we put a bag into production and midway thru production our manufacture ran out of leather and went to market without us. They picked “similar” leather, that really wasn’t that similar and our bags showed up looking a bit like Punky Brewster!

Our greatest achievement is being able to handpick a charity to contribute to. I was a nanny for a family whose oldest son had juvenile diabetes. Watching how brave his was with this disease made us want to do something for him. 5% of all our mommy bags go to the JDRF. Braedon has also designed his own diabetes pack with the help of his mom and Rian. Seeing him carry that makes us so proud!