The Bag Designer

Eva Blut: I commissioned the Viennese architect Claudia Cavallar with the design. She has a good nose for brands and shop design and is an exciting talent for dramatizing interiors. She chose the right approach: a subtle intervention in this small shop; even with the installation it doesn’t seem overloaded.

In the 90s I began with the design of bags. At that time bags were such hard things against the body that I didn’t want to carry them. So I asked myself: How can this relation be different, how can I create a different relationship with the body? And it just seemed natural that something physical should be in the name. The name should sound peculiar and unique. A label name that makes you imagine a fictional person behind it, who might also be a bit peculiar. (laughs)

Good question. At the moment I am actually pondering to make a series of bags that I will develop together with certain people. I’m thinking about friends of mine who I appreciate for their style or way of life. But yes, bag names such as “Twist” or  “Cube”, in fact, describe types of spatial creations, and that – in my opinion – is what makes my bags special.

Architecture can be so much! But yes, that’s it – it’s a definition of space. The relationship between body and object, body and space is also an issue.

Well, actually it is about investigating new principles of configuring space. Let’s take a look at the bag “Corolla” here...

For example, you could spread the “Corolla” out into a flat surface. The form only comes into being by folding the leather up around the base area. And these things here – the outer pockets – they’re actually too much, but going without them is also not ideal as they are important design elements. At the same time, they naturally have an important function as well. And that is how I work: I think about what can be done with the geometrical and graphic primary forms. Sometimes it turns into something totally unexpected, which you don’t connect with the original form, but it is still there.

Yes, but I go about it in a totally different way: The ideas float around in my head, then I start to experiment with paper and to work along different geometrical principles. Nevertheless, there’s nothing over-constructed. I think you could design something like this quite easily on a computer, but then you don’t come up with the little “this and thats”, the tricks and coincidences that turn up in the process of experimenting.

More of a subordinate role, but ultimately the form only works when it is supported by the material. That’s a good thing as it has become a bit of a trademark for me in the meanwhile: Different materials possess many different associative realms and thereby influence the atmospheres. And there is an array of aesthetics possible within this formal language. I think it has become like a container in which you can mix together different things. And in the end you get a “good cocktail”.

My calendar book, which is also my notebook, my telephone, my money. And often also a book.

“The Master and Margarita” by Michail Bulgakow! By the way, I recently discovered that I only need a small bag. If it is made properly, it can hold a lot within it but in a way that doesn’t overstrain me. If I need more then I use an extra bag. Personally, I try to keep it modular. When I take the laptop and documents with me then I stick the small bag in the big one, and in the small bag I always have the things that I will definitely need, also for the evening.

Yes!

Sure, you can definitely see if someone is more an orderly type or if they see a bag simply as a functional element, which is tagged onto the overall appearance. But sometimes it is almost like a love affair, or the bag is a surrogate for a pet on the lap. (laughs) There are all kinds of different attitudes!

Naturally, I know it best from my own clientele, so those people who are also interested in what I am doing here. My customers want to have things easy. The functional aspect is central for them – the bag has to be able to keep up with the changes that the individual personally experiences each day. Different situations, be it private or at work. It is not the “constant bag-switcher” rather someone who has their “main thing”. A person for whom aesthetics stands above everything else – that’s my clientele. And those types who aren’t really interested in the functional component, who actually just want shopping bag, they’re not really my target group either. The needs of my clients fluctuate between functionality and a good look.

That’s just a marketing gag by the large companies. Sure, you can play along if you like. But I believe that a self-confident woman knows for herself what she needs and what she likes, don’t you?

Well, I naturally found the most uncomfortable position for myself. (laughs) I design affordable yet high-quality bags for an affluent middle class, so to say. When the High Street brands communicate that you can get a leather bag for a fraction of the price, then the expectations of my clients unfortunately also shift as well. On the other hand, there are the big brands that posh it up and cast their precious pieces out into the world. I’m somewhere in-between: not emphatically glamorous, but definitely higher caliber than H&M, Cos, or Zara.

Yes, I have the desire to create something more credible – from the design to materials and production – beyond fashion’s restless pace, something that doesn’t just perpetuate itself into absurdity but represents an immanent facet of the fashion world. That’s why I create the nonseasonal line “Future Classics”. Furthermore, it’s important to me that my bags “function” in a sustainable way. My customers put money on the table for this thing and then often return again because they would like to try out a new form or the same thing in a different material. Or they are curious about a new function. They also appreciate the fact that they can bring the bag to me for repairs.

In Hungary and the Czech Republic. A main reason is that there isn’t anyone in Austria anymore who can produce serial works in the quality that I desire.

You’re quite right! If I would have wanted, I could have spent my time in the metalworking shop. But I’m not such a big fan of iron as a material; it’s somehow too pointy and sharp, too hard. But from the very beginning it was clear to me that I wanted to spend my time producing something. I was sort of born with this “wanting to be productive”, but it was left open to me how I would be “productive”. My father would have liked that I take over his locksmithery, but things turned out differently. I already moved away from home at the age of 14, so I parted with a lot of family constraints quite early.

Hallein near Salzburg, I graduated from the fashion school there. They provided excellent basic training, technically superb. At that time, back in the 80s, they still taught for the textile industry. Thereafter, I designed for sportswear and traditional folk costume companies – today a lot of these companies don’t exist anymore. Then I wanted to study art, but I soon discovered that it was handcraft which really interested me – that’s how I ended up at the Vienna Fashion Institute in Hetzendorf in the leatherware class.

No question! I love the quality of life in Vienna, and there are good funding programs, too. Very fertile conditions to sustain one’s own label. You know, I’m actually quite happy not to live in a fashion marketplace like Paris or London because you can simply work a bit freer in “backwoods” Vienna. But you can’t just lay back either – you still have to compete with the big fashion capitals in the end. It is always a good idea to build up strong networks. It is just a bit more difficult to do it from Vienna.

There were two difficult phases and slumps, but I never pondered totally giving up my label work. When my two children were small, I was constantly switching between full gas and full stop. That required a lot of energy. On top of my label I was also teaching at Vienna Fashion Institute back then. And in 2010 I opened my first shop just around the corner from here. A year before, however, I made the fine decision to only produce accessories and no longer design clothing, which I was still doing previously. With these cuts I found my focus. Now I am doing precisely what I really want to be doing.

To stretch time! (laughs) I would love to have more time and simultaneously have the same amount of energy available. Some days should just be longer!