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| "BoHo" hobo, green and red cotton, $72 |
"Isn't she lovely" evening bag, black and white silk, $52 |
"large duffel bag", multi-colored 100% cotton, $100 |
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| I am a 30 year old woman who lives in New Hampshire
now, but grew up in the outskirts of Boston. My line of bags has been around
since 2006 and I am beginning to update my site with new spring fabrics.
Women can design the bags for themselves so the bag reflects her individuality
and style perfectly. My target audience is young women who want to look
hip, but also want something more original and tailored for her. The majority of
my fabrics are 100% cotton quilting fabrics. I love patterns and color and am
drawn to many vintage/retro looking fabrics, I use mostly cotton because it is
durable and washable and I have the easiest time finding those types of fabrics.
I do have a little stash of fabrics left over from my grandmother which are
mostly silks, wools and bits of suede.
My grandmother was a seamstress at Bonwit Teller in Boston, I grew up watching
her skillfully use a needle and thread to create and recreate beautiful fashions
for her wealthy clients. She seemed so at ease with her work, and would often
show her a picture of a dress or outfit and she would make a pattern out of
newspaper or tissue paper and sew me an exact replica of what I had shown her. I
was in awe of her talent. One of the perks from her job was that we got to keep
(and I got to play with) all of the extra scraps of fabric left over from her
alterations. I used to take those scraps of fabric and create my own designs;
(mostly scrunchies, but hey it was something) from there I wanted to be a
fashion designer. Unfortunately I didn’t follow that dream and went off to
college and did the corporate thing for awhile. When corporate life didn’t work
out (a blessing in disguise) I felt as though I was granted another opportunity
to live out my dream and I started Eleni (named after my grandmother) and that’s
basically how I got started. I’ve only been in business for a year and I just
had a baby in December, so I am slowly starting to work on updating the site
with spring fabrics and am working on an Eleni baby line that will include
swaddle blankets and Boppy pillow covers in cool fabrics.
Mine isn’t so much a design nightmare story but the first craft fair I did, was
a pretty big one and I was ill prepared. My display table was an old card table
with a brown cloth draped over it, one of the other handbag designers came over
and started drilling me with questions, about where I got my materials and what
type of sewing machine I used, then remarked that he could tell by my display
that I was a newbie and was shocked that I was doing such a big show for the
first time. To make matters worse, my location in the venue was the worst one to
be had they put me right outside of the men’s restroom; I could see directly
into their bathroom and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty!
That first fair though really got under my skin and I honestly didn’t want to go
back the second day. I was scared to talk to customers and scared that the
other bag designers were going to start freaking me out again. The sales the
first day were awful and I had put so much into it for months and was really
disappointed. Then I started to think about it from a different perspective and
thought well, if I had done really well (although it would have been great), how
would I deal with failure on my second or third show? Having a rough time the
first show was a blessing in disguise because I thought, well when you are on
the bottom, there is no where to go but up! I think that’s what makes it worth
it, the feeling that there are always new things to try and new heights to
strive to reach, it might sound cheesy but you need to have these types of
motivational talks with yourself to keep going, and I do and it works!
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What is your name? |
Helena Brearly |
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Where are you from? |
Boston |
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Where do you live now? |
New Hampshire |
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How old are you? |
30 |
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Do you have a design background? |
No. |
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Do you still have a day job? |
No. |
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What year were your bags born? |
2006 |
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Bag brand name: |
Eleni |
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What is their retail price range? |
$20 - $120 |
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Where can a shopper buy your bags? |
www.elenibags.com |
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For more information, contact: |
www.elenibags.com |
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