I’m wondering if you could tell me a story about a product that feels magical to you in some way, something that had a resonance that you weren’t necessarily expecting.
La Tropezienne tote, for me, still holds a very special place in my heart. It is one of my very first totes, and I made it myself when I had a blog. I was just starting to sew on leather, and I was contacted by a woman who previously had a bag line in Los Angeles. She contacted me out of the blue and said, “I’ve got some leather to sell. Would you be interested in coming to see my studio? I’ve closed up my business, and I’m selling leather.” I was like, “Sure, I’ll go to your studio.” I bought a few hides of this beautiful vegetable-tanned Italian leather. I made the first sample of the tote called La Tropezienne.
To me, it just epitomized a lovely tote from the South of France, which was why I called it La Tropezienne, and it’s just very simple. It was a little twist on the classic boat tote. I made the tote, and then I put it on my blog, and I said, “I’ve got your summer tote,” knowing that I could probably make another 10 out of the materials that I had purchased. Just based on that one photo, I sold the 10 immediately. It was the first time that I was like, “Wow, this is like internet wildfire.” I was like, “Oh my god, what am I gonna do? I’ve sold out of them.” And then I was like, “I’m gonna go back to that woman and buy the rest of it.” I bought the rest of her hides. I made—I don’t know—50 totes and sold out of them all so quickly.
It’s so funny because then I was like, “Now, I’m done with that leather. Well, that’s a bummer. Now, what do I do?” And my husband’s like, “Find that leather. What do you have to do?” I found a vendor in New York City that sold the same leather and started to make La Tropezienne.
