Award winning designer, artist and entrepreneur, Elizabeth Sutton officially launched her first ever leather accessories collection with pieces including saddlebags and interchangeable fashion bag straps at an exclusive preview event at the Wall Street Grill in downtown Manhattan.
This event happened in early fall with the release of her new line coming shortly after (it is now live – check out the weekend-long sale on her website!)
Handmade in Mexico City, each handbag is lined in custom fabric featuring a recoloration of one of Elizabeth’s most recognized paintings, ‘Buy Yourself Roses’. The designs are carefully crafted with each saddlebag stitched with the finest quality Gutterman thread from Germany, with 10 unique thread colorations featured throughout the collection. Armed with a close eye to detail, Sutton uses six different shades of edge paint, and features custom hardware made of solid brass and plated in 24K gold and rose gold that reflects Sutton’s unique butterfly trademark.
An artist inspired by color and the use of creative color pairings, Sutton utilized a range of stunning fall tones for the collection including plum, cognac, emerald, navy, soft fall cream and classic beige. Of her creative design process, Sutton says, “The collection is rooted in my mantra to always do my best, acknowledging it’s a good thing to ask for help and encouraging others to do the same. My brand is about showing people that even though the road less traveled is often scarier, it is that much more fulfilling. This fall collaboration was a logical next step for me creatively.”
Available exclusively on the Elizabeth Sutton Collection website, the bags range from $695 to the limited edition styles for $1,295 and the interchangeable butterfly embellished bag straps are available from $375 to $395.
ABOUT ELIZABETH SUTTON
Elizabeth Sutton is a designer, visual artist and self-made CEO of Elizabeth Sutton Collection who has taken the design and arts scene by storm. In 2016, Elizabeth was selected to participate in the NYDesigns incubator program and exhibited at both the Affordable Art Fair & Hamptons Designer Showhouse. In early 2017, Elizabeth donated her work to the nationally-recognized 92nd Street Y’s Spring Fundraiser as well as Lenox Health Greenwich Village and participated in both the 2017 Architectural Digest Design Show and New York Design Center’s “What’s New What’s Next.” In Fall 2018, Sutton partnered with Joe & The Juice in locations across New York City, in support of The Art of Elysium. Elizabeth’s tile collection for Tilebar is a two time award collection, from Architectural Digest and HD Expo. Elizabeth will be launching her first leather collection along with her lifestyle blog this fall.
Below are a few questions I asked Elizabeth:
If you could make something leather for anyone in the world, who would it be for and what would it be?
She thought for a second but not too long. Her reply was, “Anna Wintour! And it would be a bag with her name that says, ‘Anna’.” She proceeded to show me what she meant in her bags with other words such as “happy”.
I perused the new collection, took a few notes and e-mailed her a few questions in the week after the launch. They are as follows:
1. Where did you go to school?
I studied at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business where I studied marketing and finance and received a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration. However, I am a self-taught artist. Never took an art class.
2. What made you transition from paintings to bags?
After my divorce, I realized I would need another source of income. Considering the art industry tends to fluctuate, I initially intended to pursue home accessories. My life took an unfortunate turn after a fatal car accident affected my life and business and changed the direction of my company. This ultimately led to working in the fashion arena; a very happy accident after a sad one. Plus I had a background in wholesale fashion as I interned for a contemporary brand called Parker, so that was beneficial.
3. Do you sew other things as well?
I personally do not sew any of my products together. My bags are handmade in Mexico City by a fourth generation leather atelier. The atelier basically serves as a secondary art studio of mine where they cut, paint, and perfectly place the butterflies as well as other materials. But let’s be clear I definitely do not know how to sew, fortunately my seamstress is incredibly talented and well-experienced.
I found a few questions and answers on her website. I included them here because they’re insightful to read. Who knows if you would have landed on them amid your clicking and they fit here so, here you go!
What have I learned (about bag making)?
1. That there are so many things involved in creating, storing, and distributing a product such as a ladies leather shoulder bag- it is unbelievable. Things I could have never imagined prior to beginning the process. Applying for a UPC code, handling tariffs and customs, negotiating and securing distribution facilities, creating inventory lists for the web (which is its own animal), deciding on packaging, quantities, and the list goes on.
2. That a LOT of decisions are involved in designing leather products. Beyond the leathers and colors, you need to think about extremely detail oriented design aspects and make quality decisions when selecting paint colors, thread colors, lining, plating, zippers and pulls, packaging, cushioning, all sorts of things. In addition to aesthetics, quality is something I pay very close attention to, which is why the smallest details are important to me.
3. Pad your expected timelines by 30% and pad your costs by 20%, solid. I ran into so many issues and delays, all norms in the world of production, due to external vendors, complex molds, unexpected fires, etc, etc. One of the most important things for a healthy working relationship – open communication to manage expectations. The atelier in Mexico City, which produces the Elizabeth Sutton Leather Collection has never, in their 47 years of existence, seen a production so complex and unique, and yet they are still telling me I’m their favorite client, even though production ran 3 weeks longer than expected.
4. That setbacks occur in business ALL THE TIME and you just need to roll with the punches. There is literally no point in getting too upset and crying over it, because it won’t change a thing. Figure out the next best solution, and figure it out FAST.
5. Preparing for a launch is SO complicated, especially in regards to web – creating product descriptions, managing inventory stocks especially considering how complex my collection is with all the colorations, writing and optimizing my blog posts, deciding which images to use, editing lighting, uploading and reviewing all information, creating marketing materials for Instagram, Insta-story, newsletters, Google ads, catalogues, line-sheets, and look-books. Deciding all my new policies, like free shipping, return policies, information for UPS, etc. So much. Too much. Head spinning.
6. Teamwork makes the dream work. The Elizabeth Sutton Leather Collection literally took a village. At least 100 people were involved in getting the collection off the ground and the job is not over.
7. Most importantly, I learned that my brand stands for quality and design integrity. That every decision I made was to uphold the integrity and the visual of my product, the ladies leather shoulder bag, in order to achieve design and quality perfection, something most brands these days don’t do. From the color and thickness of the thread, to the color of the edge paint, to giving my fans a glimpse into my atelier. My goal was to create the most beautiful possible product, even if it would cost me more, and I am certain the world will see that my brand represents nothing but quality and design integrity.
