PB: If you could describe the person that you would like to see carry your handbag, who is she, do you have someone in mind?
Jalda: The type its you and I. It is very broad, women from 18-50. Part of this is happen and part of it is what I want. It’s funny because I will have these old ladies loving my bags and then I will have a teenager loving the exact same bag. I love making little old ladies happy, its great. It’s a very broad age group, its people that love fashion but it is people that are somewhat practical like they have a life but they like fashion, they like to look good, but they don’t want a clutch that doesn’t go with everything, they want a bag that has pockets for the phone, it needs to be functional. It’s someone who gets pleasure from it, that is fashionable but isn’t so high fashion that its too out there or that its just for today. It’s is like a sensible woman. Its people like you and I, we love love fashion, we will spend money on it, we appreciate quality, and we appreciate that we can use it and love it allot not just once. I don’t want to carry a bag that I cant open easily or put my phone in a separate pocket. I would love to see my bags on a classy fashionable woman that has a job and is intelligent, a strong woman that is interesting and has some money to spend. I have had the 20 year girl come to the office to get a bag that she had been absolutely obsessing over, she had been looking everywhere to see if a store had it, but we did. She paid part cash, part check, part credit card, and she drove all the way from Pasadena. She called us a couple times apologizing for running late, obsessively loving my bags and saving up for them, then you have your Paris Hilton type that just says “it looks like real croc that will be fun with this particular dress tonight.”
PB: So when you have ideas do you sketch them out right away or do you kinda hold onto it for a little bit and then just get back to it later?
Jalda: I like to tear things out of magazines like pictures to put in a folder that I keep. If I have an idea in my head I will usually try and really quickly sketch it out. I’m really visual in my head, so if I sketch it out is is because I have to remember. And that is kinda the challenge, is when I do get ready to design I have to collect all these things and look at them again and I get overwhelmed because I have way to many ideas. That’s when I just have to sit and sort of let myself go for awhile. I usually design at home I have this big dinning room table, and I will leave the sketches there and I will walk by several times a day on the way to the kitchen, and some will just speak to me more than others. Then I will bring them here and have the girls have a look.
PB: It sounds like you have an internal review process built in that works.
Jalda: It is really hard to be completely objective because I like the new stuff because its new, but it doesn’t mean that the old stuff isn’t going to sell better. The trunk shows are supper important for that. You will show stuff sometimes that doesn’t make it, but its good. It’s really good to see the responses, do people gravitate toward this bag but then they will buy it? and if they don’t then what is it? At that point its probably the price, or that it is too out there, which is OK because its marketing and your trying to get people in. But its really good to get that kind of feedback. I sometimes even think about having focus groups, or sending pictures to my friends before, but that requires time. If I had a design department that would have all these processes that would do all these things, so you would have feedback before going into production.
PB: What do you think the net steps are for your line?
Jalda: My focus right now is international. 20% of our sales right now are international already, especially with the dollar being low. I have always had the vision that once I’m really on my brand, like a household name or almost a household name then shoes, jewelry I’m thinking about already, and I’d love to do clothing sometime. I would want my clothing to be really wearable, really flattering, really classy, expensive but not annoyingly expensive, worth what their worth, simple easy to wear good stuff. Ultimately the plan is to build a brand that is an image: that’s a classy women, interesting and dynamic, that likes fashion, and has great taste and that’s good quality, you know what to expect and then blow it out. I think its dangerous to do it too soon because you might just want to because its cool, but you don’t want to dilute yourself. For me I am getting there but I think its a little too soon because I would just be shooting myself in the foot right now.
