Taryn's Design Diary

It’s time to formally put away Try #1 and enter the next phase, Try #2. Actually, the above photos is more of a pictorial of Try #1.5. The real Try #1 was learning to make the handbags by hand, and sewing them myself. That was a bit of a disaster. And yet it was a great learning experience, and now if ever I was put to task, like if a gunman threatened to shoot me unless I sewed him (or her) a purse (in fact, such a gunman would more likely be a woman than a man, though hey, that too is pretty presumptuous of me), well fear not, I can do it. After the real Try #1, hand-sewn handbags, came the above, Try #1.5. 

I managed to stuff all my research notes, sketches, design spec sheets and the first batch of prototypes into 2 bags. Nicely enough, into 2 of the Taryn Zhang prototype bags, the Catalyst in red, and the Overachiever in black. 

And where will these 2 bags go? The back corner of my closet of course, right next to the shoeboxes full of the hand-sewn handbags I made a year ago. I can hear my husband James right now. “See? I told you so.” 

Last summer when I was sewing clutch after clutch at the dining table (that was the only available place in our little condo for me to work), my husband said, “You’re never going to carry any of those. They’re going to be shoved into a box and forever stuck in the back of our closet.” And I said no, of course I’ll use them. He turned out to be right. They’re all now in shoeboxes in the back of my closet. Sometimes he pokes fun at me while we’re dressing up to go to a formal event and he sees me looking over my collection of [store bought] evening bags to pick one to match my outfit. “Why don’t you carry one of those clutches you sewed?” he’ll always offer. 

Oh, but he’s not entirely right. I am using 2 of the first round samples. The Jetsetter in antique rose, which really is great for travel, and the Workaholic in black. See below. 

In My Bag: Intellectuals of smug temperaments should avert their eyes. =) The fascination with what's in another fellow sister's purse is an irrational, superficial girly-girl curiosity. In mine: current open case files; yellow legal notepad; handful of pens; day planner/calendar; design journal/sketchpad; sunglasses; homemade pink purse organizer for compact, lip gloss, tissue pack, and mints; cosmetics organizer bag with all sorts of junk (hair ties, flash drives, brown rice and matcha teabags, hand sanitizer, lotion, Hello Kitty Band-Aids, etc.); and Hello Kitty wristlet wallet.

Oh– note the peeling and scratches on the wall behind the Workaholic. Cat lovers will have no problems identifying where those scratches came from. 

"In case you forgot, I went to law school too, so counselor, I hereby plead the fifth."

Now for Try #2. I got rid of the Duchess, the Modernist, the Kindred Spirit, and the Peripatetic. I’m debating whether I should strike out or try again the Catalyst. Also, I’ve added the Ambitionist, the Executive, and the Financier (or maybe Tycooness; I haven’t settled on a name yet). 

The whole process starts all over again. Tomorrow the swatches should be arriving and I’ll start picking out materials and the color palette. Yay. I’m thinking definitely black, a dark deep red, a gray, a nudish-beige-off-white-cream-neutral-something sort of color, antique rose, and I don’t know what else. Brown is the tough color to decide on. It’s really easy for a brown bag to look bag-lady-ish and uncool, but a good brown bag is also a staple in any woman’s wardrobe. 

Excerpts from design specs of Try #2

The above drawings were rendered in MS Paint. All my designs are either sketched by hand or in MS Paint. 

Overall, not much to update. Try #1 (or #1.5) didn’t work out, so now it’s onto Try #2. Let the good times roll.

Please note that the following handbags represent first prototypes and serious blunders. This blog documents our trials and errors and tracks our progress from inexperienced start-up to launching the Taryn Zhang brand. Please bear that in mind as you look through these photos and illustrations.

The Catalyst was intended to be an attache that I could take with me to work, a briefcase-like handbag that fit my casefiles in one half or a laptop computer, and in the other half, a purse compartment for all my daily girly things. The back zip pocket could house my phone, keys, and wallet for easy access. It would be a bold high-powered brief that I could take with me to court. Here is my original sketch for the Catalyst attache:

And here is the actual prototype, version 1.0 (do brace yourself for this):

Sure, the manufacturer got the silhouette right (as in, it’s a quadrilateral, like in the illustration; yes, that’s how low our standards are now), but wrong fabric and wrong red. The material was supposed to be stiff, polished, and glossy, you know, briefcase-like. That material in the prototype is not briefcase-like at all.

As for color,  I wanted a deeper, darker sangria red. This red they used is, well, hate to say it, but it’s China red. Really not what I had in mind…

The Catalyst was also supposed to come with a detachable, adjustable shoulder strap. Note where the hook for the straps are located on the bag (see right photo above). Yeah. Way at the bottom. Think basic physics here. When you attach the shoulder strap, the entire bag flips upside down. And everybody thought we Asians were good at math and science! Bah, I say. I don’t think you need any experience at all in design or the handbag manfuacturing industry to know that hooks at the bottom of the bag might be a bad idea. I even went back to my illustrations to make sure it wasn’t me. Nope, it wasn’t. I had instructed the hooks to be at the top third. The manufacturer must have decided that by “top third” I really meant bottom third.

Again, the hideous interior lining. At least it’s actually padded. The only good thing out of this is the bag can indeed fit my casefiles and my laptop. I appreciate how I can use one half of the bag for work stuff and the other half for my everyday-essential-girly stuff.

Can I take this bag with me to court? Haha. No. I can take it with me to the office when no one is looking. I am currently using this bag 100% for its functionality. If anybody even quasi-important ever walked into my office, the first thing I’d do is kick this bag under my desk and hide it. I know, I’m awful.

Seriously my biggest gripe with how the first round of prototypes came out is that they completely missed the mark on my point of view. These bags are supposed to be for business executives. Alpha women. Women who might otherwise be carrying manly suitcases or else something really plain and boring to conform to their corporate culture. I got instead a batch of very casual handbags.

And this prototype for the Catalyst in particular makes no sense. It plays mind games with you. It’s a brief, but not really. It’s casual, but also not really. It’s like–you know what it’s like?–a power suit made out of denim. That’s exactly what it’s like.

… I spoke too soon. Right after I typed the foregoing, I ran an image search for “denim suit” and it’s apparently quite popular, and very “couture.” Yowsers.

photo credit: denimology.com

Shows you what I know about fashion. =X

Well. And there you have it. Go out there in a denim power suit and carry the Catalyst version 1.0. It’s going to be all the rage next season, swear.

One at a time now, I’m cutting out the patterns for each tentative design, that way the manufacturer has a more accurate reference. Doing so renders me even more confused as to why the paper patterns made by seasoned professionals in this industry came out the way they did. (See here.) This isn’t rocket science.

I started off with paper grocery bags, then commenced cutting, measuring, and folding until I got the basic components and pieces of the bag I was trying to create a paper prototype of. (MS Paint drawing of it above, in black.) 

I made a mistake, though. The pieces are supposed to be symmetrical, but I made the 2 pieces that are to be joined together the same rather than reflections of each other. Oops. At least it’s an easy mistake to fix, which is what I’ll do this rainy Sunday morning. In the meantime, I took the liberty of casting some Photoshop magic to flip the image and show what the two pieces should look like — mirror reflections of each other.

Also, by cutting out my own paper patterns first before sending the spec sheets to the manufacturer, it’ll be easier for me to identify what, if anything, is being lost in translation after the factory tackles the design. The only hard part here is finding the time. It’s a whole lot of arts and crafts for someone with a demanding, all-consuming day job. =/

July 2009, right before the New York bar, is when I decided to start my own line of handbags and accessories. It’s now April 2010 and apparent to me that I’ve spent the last 8 or 9 months walking in a big circle. I’m back where I started.

It’s painful for me to look at the samples that I spent the last 6 months making. They represent an unprecedented state of ugliness. Hoping for a silver lining, I’d like to think that I’ve learned from all this. I’ve got a better idea now of what can and cannot be done, and how or how not to approach certain issues. Right now feels like a tempting time to give up, throw in the towel; but I won’t. There are still miles to go before I’ll sleep. =)

Please note that the following handbags represent first prototypes and serious blunders. This blog documents our trials and errors and tracks our progress from inexperienced start-up to launching the Taryn Zhang brand. Please bear that in mind as you look through these photos and illustrations. 

If your perceptions may allow you to believe that this bag is pink…   

…more specifically, a shade of pink I like to informally and fondly refer to as L.A. Socialite Pink. You know the pink I’m talking about. That light cotton candy I’m-a-girly-flirty-trust-fund-baby pink. First, I don’t know if the color of the above-photographed bag would be considered pink; and even if I run with the assumption that it is in fact pink, I don’t know if it comes close to falling within the notion of L.A. Socialite Pink. 

Though I will say this: if I stare at that bag long enough and down enough glasses of wine, I start to think that actually, the color and style of this is bag is kinda cute…kinda…well, at least it’s not horrible like the other sample previously posted.   

Bird's Eye View

Here is the same bag in a color intended to be cream. Then again, it’s evident here that the color problem started with my sketch. The color of the illustrated bag is canary yellow, not “cream.” What could I have thus expected for the output? 

There is also the issue (though now it sure seems like a negligible one compared to everything else we’re dealing with) of the samples made without the silver-tone metal link chains (see sketch above) or the contrast trimming for the side pockets. Plus, this bag is supposed to come with a detachable adjustable shoulder strap, but I sure don’t see any hooks on that bag for such a strap. Triple oops. 

Now let’s get to the bag that should have been one of my favorites, the Workaholic shoulder tote. 

The material itself is lovely and soft, ideal for most ladies’ handbags, just not this one. No. This bag should have been made out of a harder, glossier, completely smooth material, case-like, sturdy, and structured. 

In the front, that diagonal line from the illustration indicates an open pocket. It’s clear from the photograph that the sample omitted the open pocket detail and simply sewed across to create the look of that diagonal line. 

Sketch of the Workaholic design, from Nov '09

Finally (sadly), the photographs of these first samples make it apparent to me (and to everybody) that my metal logo plaque is fugly. It looks cheap. It’s too big. 2 inch x 2 inch? What was I thinking?! What convinced me that a 2 inch x 2 inch metal square slapped onto the front of every bag would look good, when I myself am one who normally loathes huge obvious logos on my clothes and accessories? 

Irony is one of my favorite literary devices. The above weekender tote design was named the Overachiever. What a disaster. Overachiever my *$$. 

This bag was intended to be a grad student bag, something to fit big textbooks and a laptop. It also comes with a detachable adjustable shoulder strap, which is missing. That’s okay though. The missing shoulder strap is the least of my worries for this sample. 

And where is the matching clutch that is supposed to go with the Overachiever bag set? In theory, there should be a compartment inside the weekender tote that houses this matching clutch. Run around campus all day lugging the tote, and at night when it’s time to go out, leave the tote in the car and take the clutch with you. Except the factory forgot all about the clutch. It simply wasn’t made. So now we’re waiting on that… I mean shucks; what else could go wrong? 

[Now I need to go find some wood to knock on because knowing my luck...] 

Originally named the Catalyst, this particular bag shall now be called the Stuffed Lobster. 

For a line of vegan handbags, I’m not sure why these samples are coming out looking like dead animals. Case in point, the previous post with the Kindred Spirit looking like a panda-bear-mutated-into-a-purse. Now this. 

Also, the material for this bag should have been hard, glossy, smooth, and there should be a women’s briefcase look to the Catalyst. Instead, the actual material used above looks like fabric, or nylon, or something that I definitely did not ask for. 

"Stupid human. All that money would have been better spent on Fancy Feast for me!"

Looking at all this another way, you could say that I simply paid the tuition cost for Handbag Design 101. Talk about a hands-on learning experience. No independent study course I took in undergrad or grad school compares to what I’ve gone through these last few months.