Any bag I create is a composition of where I’m at in my life at that time. My Clients Understand I am an artist before I am a business man, and as a bag engineer I have the ability to convey my art and emotions into the products I sell. I guess a good example of this would be the bag I am currently creating for submission in this years Handbag Awards, appropriately named “Second Chance” my motivation is fueled by my consistent struggles with web developers who have slowed the BYSOG growing process tremendously, and finally finding salvation by giving yet it another go. It’s a product that symbolizes giving opportunity, which is exactly what 101 is all about and why I will debut it through its submission for the contest, before placing it on my site for sale in the fall.

My greatest inspirations come mostly from my models and the women in my life when creating the shapes and functional concepts that I mix down to a “look” most appropriate for my market, which is strictly for the grown and sexy! Don’t get me wrong I sell a lot of bags to customers under 23 primarily because some silhouettes are edgier than others like the Spike bag, but my target audience ranges between 23-35, young but grown/hip but sexy. I’d like to think it has a lot to do with the skins I use and the hardware finishes that compliment them. Much like Rembrandt who is the source of my greatest inspirations day to day, I have an obsession for detail, and that I believe is carried through my work making each silhouette timeless in nature, which is what I believe draws in the older 40+ crowd that seems to lust over quality rather than trend.

Me and my brother where sitting at the dinner table one night after work with my family and we where so tired and my mom asked me why and before I could answer my father said something to the effect of “leave the boys alone cant you see there exhausted, they’ve been designing and sourcing all day for these ridiculous designers without a single thank you, how do you think you’d feel?” and so my mother suggested we do our own collection, and so it was left to only decide its name and that’s a whole other story on its own!!

Well other than it meaning Handbag in Armenian, I want people to know that my line doesn’t just represent me, it represents generations of a hard working family. These bags don’t just put food on my plate but on the plates of all my employees and there families. In my eyes every purchase made helps there kids go to camp, field trips, schooling, and yes as charitable as this sounds it’s the truth and this is our America, and my American dream is to someday give back more than I able to now, not by donating to some charity, but by creating jobs and helping a fellow brother in need help there brother. That’s my motto and BYSOG’s way of life.

OMG, the Ultimate nightmare just ended!!! I was working on developing a collection for this new “independent designer” and I aided him in the total design and development of the whole collection through out the whole process, I mean I did all the sourcing, made sure every stitch was cared for and every bag was perfect. Anyway to make a long story short this “designer” was so mean and nasty I just couldn’t take it, to top it off upon finishing the project he refused to pay until he received the goods first, which was so not apart of our deal and I would be foolish to think otherwise, so I did what I had to do, which was put my foot down and upon receipt of payment (30 min later via Credit Card), I shipped the goods with a little surprise. I put all proprietary materials, patterns etc. in the box and offered my best wishes for his future, with a box of chocolates and thank you card with a picture of my factorys’ staff, to remind him we are only human. Such a jerk.

I don’t think I measure achievement in any one way or by reaching any one goal. I feel achievement should be a total composition of a person’s body of work over a lifetime and what that body of work has done for society or the people around them. But being that I am being asked to focus my answer on only one of those, than it would have to be earning my fathers total respect as a handbag maker. Knowing what I have been able to do thus far with his life long body of work, which will take a lot of time and effort for me and my brother to measure up to, I know in my heart when all is said and done and the time comes for him to pass the torch, his retirement will be in total serenity. That’s why this is all worth it.