Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons

Inside Clare V.: How a DIY Laptop Case Sparked a Handbag Empire 🧵👜 | Emily Blumenthal & Clare Vivier

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, we dive into the story of Clare Vivier, the founder behind the effortlessly cool handbag brand Clare V.—a name synonymous with California style and functional fashion. What began as a side hustle crafting chic laptop cases has grown into a nationwide brand with 14 retail locations and a cult following.

Clare shares how her business was born out of necessity in the early 2000s, when stylish laptop carriers were nowhere to be found. Sewing late into the night, she created pieces for herself and friends, eventually pivoting from tech accessories to versatile handbags that married utility with elegance.

💼 You’ll learn:
🧵 How a lack of fashionable laptop bags sparked a creative business
👶 Why Clare paused her business after becoming a mom—and how she reignited it
đź“Ť What passing a familiar LA factory taught her about timing and resilience
đź‘ś How transitioning from laptop cases to handbags unlocked scalability
đź‘Ą Why hiring a lean team changed everything for Clare V.'s growth

Clare also reveals how her first store came almost by accident—what started as a shared office with another designer evolved into a customer-facing retail space that launched the brand’s direct-to-consumer presence. From Silver Lake to Nolita, each store opening was a thoughtful step toward building community and expanding her vision.

Through trademark hurdles and industry shifts, Clare’s philosophy—“Don’t get caught up on things that aren’t actually a problem yet”—has guided her through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Her story is a testament to the power of perseverance, personal style, and staying rooted in your "why."

🎧 Listen now to hear how Clare built Clare V. from the ground up—and why she believes creative businesses can scale without losing soul.

Our Guest: Clare Vivier is the founder and designer behind Clare V., a modern accessories brand known for its clean lines, vibrant colors, and French-meets-California aesthetic. A pioneer in combining fashion with function, Clare continues to lead her brand with integrity, independence, and a strong sense of purpose.

Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.

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Speaker 1:

Sure enough, we found a storefront space in Silver Lake, on Mitchell Terena, two doors up from Sunset Boulevard, that we thought would just be our office. We didn't even think of it being a store. We thought this could be our office space. And then we were like, wait a minute, this has a storefront bags and my bags at one third of the space. We'll split it up so that one third of the front of the store will be our Vivienne Bentley is what we called it and the two thirds will be our offices.

Speaker 2:

Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast, with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love, from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Welcome. Claire vivier, claire v, the claire of all clairs, handbag royalty. Thank you so much for joining us on handbag designer 101 the podcast.

Speaker 2:

I think I'm more excited than you thank you, emily, I'm very excited to be here really for sure, actually yeah, and this is my, this is, this is Technology for the win, so I was fortunate enough to have you as a guest in my entrepreneurship class at FIT and I did know your story, but hearing it from you was even more exciting. So I have some inkling as to you know the journey that took you to the Claire V world. But I just want to, because obviously my listeners most of them weren't in my class, and if so, good to have them back. Just to go back. You are LA based, you are California, that's who you are. That is part of your origin story, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

It definitely is. I'm based in Los Angeles, east side of Los Angeles, started the business out of my home in Echo Park many years ago. It's hard for me to say. I say that the brand started in 2008. But really, as you know, these dreams start before we say that they actually start. Because when you're starting your business on your own, you know, completely self-funded, and it's just this dream that you have and desire and passion. You don't really know if it's going to turn into something. So I had the dream and I started sewing bags and making things before my son was born. My son was born in 2003. So you know, that's a good five years before I say I started. But yeah, I'm based in Los Angeles, I'm married to a French guy and that's why you see a lot of Frenchy phrases and things and we have a lot of them.

Speaker 2:

You're lucky because it definitely gave your brand some zhuzh right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, it's like a writer you know, write what you know. I feel like I'm a designer and I design what I know, like there's a lot of California in my designs and I feel like there's a lot of French as well.

Speaker 2:

Well, he got lucky with you, that's for sure. I'll tell him. Yeah, I listen. If there's anyone who wants internal PR, I'm your girl because I'm like super fan XX this is. I still can't get over that this has finally happened. You said that you were sewing long before your son was born. What was that? Like you know, growing up, were you a sewer as a child? Were you the person who made their own clothes, or was that just a hobby? Because obviously most of us who started our handbag brands were doing something else and then this was something that percolated, and most of the designers with whom I've worked kind of start their brand with blinders. It's like something yearning inside them to say, okay, I have to do this, I need to do this, I don't know how to do this, I'm going to push forward and I'm going to make every mistake in the book because I just don't care, because this is what I need to do. So I believe something like that was your story-ish.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I learned how to sew in grade school and we I think my sister had a sewing machine then later at home. So I would sew at home and I would sew very easy things, you know, like drawstring skirts and things like that. I didn't really I never learned how to make patterns and things for clothing. I would make t-shirt, dresses and stuff. But when I started to make, I must have had a really cheap sewing machine and I just started making pockets for my computer, for my laptop, because I was working with my husband at the time in French television, in production for French television.

Speaker 1:

And when I started to make these pockets for my laptop, I started to really feel like, oh, I'm really excited about this, like this is something I really love, and I could see that other people wanted them as well, like I was starting to make them for my friends. There weren't a lot of cute laptop bags at the time. So this was the first time that I felt like, oh, this is something I really love and it was like I would stay up all night sewing and I didn't I would didn't feel tired. You know that first feeling of like excitement and figuring out patterns and figuring out how to sew things when you know when you have to use your brain in that way. When you're sewing, you know things in reverse and things that you're like. Ok, how? What is the pattern for this? I mean, you definitely use your brain in a different way, and it was very exciting to me.

Speaker 2:

How did you come to pass, if you were working with your husband, that you obviously needed a bag to travel with? That required putting your laptop in, because, if we go way back to 2003 or before, that, like, laptops were heavy, so obviously the bag that you were thinking had to be super sturdy. So were you traveling a lot, and how did your friends see said bag that you were, that they were like hey, I want that one too, because obviously the best marketing is wearing your bag yourself.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, bags, laptops are heavy. I had that blueberry Apple. Remember the blueberry Macintosh, that one of those first laptops.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I was making a case for that. I remember that one had its own little handle on it.

Speaker 2:

Because in Sex and the City. Aiden said oh look, it's like a purse, it's got a handle.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I know I know, I saw that recently and I was like, oh my God, I had that bad laptop. That's the one that it started with.

Speaker 2:

It's like a bowling ball.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I had a laptop before that. I still have that. You know, the first Apple laptop that was like a little brick. Yeah, I had that in the 90s because when I moved to Paris, I brought my laptop with me and you couldn't get online with it. We didn't have online, it was just basically a typing machine, you know, and it was what I was going to record my life on. It was going, I wrote, you know just what I was doing in France, and and then I would have to find a printer to print things. Oh my God, I know.

Speaker 2:

I know, and you convinced him to come to LA with you throughout this whole process.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, he was planning on coming to California anyway. He had gone to school in Berkeley and so he had friends in Berkeley and yeah. So we decided to come back to the Bay Area together.

Speaker 2:

Wow. And then here you are, you're working with him which I'm sure is already colorful between the pair of you and both of you working and then this idea sparks and then, on a whim, you decide to make this bag. How did other people see this bag to say, oh, I need to make more?

Speaker 1:

well, I just started making them for my friends, so I think they saw them in person.

Speaker 1:

I see you were making them and giving them away yeah, yeah, or maybe they bought them for I don't know not very much money, you know, but you know, maybe they bought them for I don't know not very much money, you know but maybe cost of materials or something.

Speaker 1:

I remember the thing that I would get really caught up in is how was I going to turn this into a business, because laptops are all different sizes, yep, and that was the thing that really tripped me up, and this is kind of something that I see a lot of young entrepreneurs who are starting their fashion company or whatever company they're starting. They get really caught up on things that aren't necessarily a problem yet, but it seems like it's going to be a huge issue. And my thing was laptops Like how on earth am I going to get all of the new sizes, even if I want to stick just to Apple? Even just Apple has all the different sizes and I was like maybe I can get advanced notice when they're going to change size. You know, just like you know all these things that were not an issue yet, you know, and it just the advice that I give people all the time is don't get caught up on things that aren't actually a problem yet.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

Just put one foot in front of the other, keep doing your thing, because you're going to sort things out as you go along. And the thing that I sorted out was that my laptop envelopes could very easily just be a clutch and they could be a handbag. And the laptop envelopes needed a tote and the tote didn't need to have sizes, because all different you know there's a tote for. You know all different things. So it very soon just became totes and clutches and the laptop envelope. It became like an oversized clutch basically and you could put your laptop in it and there was one size and then you know if it fit. If it didn't, didn't? This is the only size we have. But, yeah, turned out to not be. It wasn't a laptop business, laptop envelope business. You know it was. It turned into a handbag business.

Speaker 2:

So I so appreciate you saying that. Like you know, sometimes the best ideas end up coming from ways that people didn't even realize that how the product was even being used, like oh, who knew? I guess this is what I'm doing. You know you were doing this by yourself making the bags yourself, sewing them, putting them together. At what point, how far in did you say to your husband okay, by the way, I think I need to do this more slash, full time slash. You know, was your son born at that time and you were there with the baby? Or were you still just doing this on your own and like, okay, just kind of cobbling it together and like, oh well, I guess I need some sales. What do I do now?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, before my son was born, I had already gone through the process of figuring out that I needed to find production. I needed to find a factory that sewed bags, because this dream of mine to make totes and clutches even just at the time, oh, and I had a little crossbody bag called a mini sack and my designs were definitely surpassing my ability as a maker. So I knew that I needed to find some kind of production in Los Angeles and so I went on this search. Not having not worked in the fashion industry at all and having no experience with production or anything, I just went downtown to the fabric district and I went into all the stores and I asked them if they knew factories that worked on bags. And nobody really did. And I went to all the you know just, it was really a door to door, grassroots thing of like where do I buy zippers, where do I buy D-rings, where do I buy snap hooks, where do I buy? And I just sorted all this out and at some, at some source along the way I think it was a hardware supplier they turned me on to my first factory in Los Angeles and I met them before my son was born. It was very I think I probably had my son right before birth, met them right before I had my son.

Speaker 1:

And this is just to tell you that all of this really wasn't a business yet. It was really just this dream of mine and I was like this is something I would love to do. I don't know if it's ever going to work out, but I love it and I believe in it. I even believed in it back in the day, but I just didn't know how to make it work. And then I had my son and then I was a little, just kind of overwhelmed. I think is just the word of becoming a, and you know this is going to be my life for the next. You know this is my life now.

Speaker 1:

So I think I just was kind of like whiplash and didn't really know how I would work on a bag business dream of mine with a young infant. And I knew that even when I was going to have to start thinking about going back to work, this dream of mine wasn't paying me anything. So there was no way that I could pay for a babysitter, you know, and have my husband work for you know, pay for everything, and my money would just go to pay for a babysitter so I could work on it. So just it just did not, it did not add up, like just math did not work. So I kind of put the whole dream on hold. I just kind of was like, okay, well, I guess that's just it, you know, and I guess I won't do that.

Speaker 1:

And I remember driving past that factory one day and and really like tears coming to my eyes because I was thinking like that was really something, because I was thinking like that was really something I believed in and that was really like I just let that go, you know, and and I kind of was feeling bad for myself and bad for moms who let their dreams die when they become a mom.

Speaker 1:

And like I think I realized that because I had that very emotional response to it, like it might have been a calling, like it might have been something that I should return to. And when Oscar was able to go to preschool when he was three, half day preschool I decided to go back to that factory when he was three and go back to them and say, hey, it's me, can we pick this up again? Can I make a few bags? And I started up again and started a website and found a friend of a friend who designed websites and started selling bags on my website and really just started with clutches and kind of like a pared down version of that envelope, that laptop envelope. So anyway, that's how I started. I'm not sure I kind of got off track from your question.

Speaker 2:

That's okay. No, I mean, look, people don't seem to realize how productive a mom can be given a short window with a sleeping child.

Speaker 1:

That is so true, I got so much done between the hours of nine and 12. You can't even imagine. And then I also had the benefit of a neighbor who had two kids of her own and I would always often I would pick up my son from preschool and drop him off at her house. So another way of getting free child care. And she was such a lovely friend and was happy to have Oscar at her house.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God. Yeah, it definitely definitely does take a village. I so get that. So it's amazing because after going through that visceral reaction of realizing like oh my God, this is what I'm meant to do, and then you have these like existential thoughts like okay, if I'm only leading and living one life, I can't not do this, I need to do this. So it's kind of like what you were doing before wasn't so much of a hobby as like trying to figure it out. And then the clarity and the path just presents itself like okay, he's gone. I'm got. Like the first day you drop him off, you're like I'm back to the factory. Hey guys, let's do this the end.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yes, it's really how it happened, yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy. How are you able to decide? You know, showing back up at this factory Like, okay, did the math math for you? Were you like, okay, I need to sell this for X amount of price? Or did you kind of just throw it together and hope for the best? If you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and didn't know where to start, this is for you. Ever wanted to start a handbag brand and didn't know where to start? This is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer but aren't trained in design, this is for you. If you have a handbag brand and need strategy and direction, this is for you.

Speaker 2:

I'm Emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, and this is the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. Over the next 10 classes, I will break down everything you need to know to make, manufacture and market a handbag brand. Broken down to ensure that you will not only skip steps in the handbag building process, but also to save money to avoid the learning curve of costly mistakes. For the past 20 years, I've been teaching at the top fashion universities in New York City, wrote the Handbag Designer Bible, founded the Handbag Awards and created the only Handbag Designer podcast. I'm going to show you like I have countless brands to create in this in-depth course, from sketch to sample to sale.

Speaker 2:

Whether you're just starting out and don't even know where to start or begin, or if you've had a brand and need some strategic direction, the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass is just for you. So let's get started and you'll be the creator of the next it bag. Join me, emily Blumenthal, in the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. So be sure to sign up at emilyblumenthalcom slash masterclass and type in the code PINECAST to get 10% off your masterclass today.

Speaker 2:

Because, there's this learning process.

Speaker 1:

It was a real learning process, the thing that this factory I always credit them as being so helpful to me at the beginning and really imperative for me as a starting my business, which was that they didn't hold me to giant minimums. You know, I didn't know anything about minimums. I learned very quickly, like what's going on here, I would have to produce how many? No, I can't do that, like I can't pay for that many. But I would go in and I would tell them my designs. I think they really liked me because I knew how to sew and I knew how to put things together and so it was.

Speaker 1:

It didn't feel to her, the factory owner, it didn't feel like I was just some rich kid with a dream. You know, a lot of people want to start fashion companies. When they're just, you know, just nothing against them. Sometimes they become very successful. But I think she just appreciated that I knew how to sew and then I knew a lot about the way things are put together and I was really passionate about it and I would go downtown buy leather, buy materials and oftentimes it would be kind of remnants of things only by have to buy a small bundle of leather or whatever I was bringing in, and she would let me. I mean, I don't even know if she had any minimums, I want to say like 10, maybe you know. So I didn't have to invest in inventory too much. You know, it all seemed very manageable for, you know, the small amount of money that I would have to put out, I would sell, I would put back into it, buy more materials. You know, it just became this very self-sustaining business.

Speaker 2:

That's pretty early adopter-ish of you to rely so heavily on D2C, and you know very much, so yeah. It's the interesting thing. Like you know, I used to do partnerships with big brands. Now they're called collaborations. You know, like you were selling to customers, that was B2C, now it's called D2C. So you know the evolution of what we were doing. Who knew that that's what people should be doing?

Speaker 2:

I think that's where the arc was going. How did you deal with? Okay, I need to also have this sold in other stores Because I know when I was selling my bags a billion years ago, like they were, the stores were very specific. Do not put your website on the hang tags because they thought it might compete, Like they had very strict rules to make sure that you would not conflict with their potential business for them to be generous enough to carry your product.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't remember them telling me that. I don't know if my website was on my tag, but I know it was on an early version of my tags. But I started off selling. I walked down the street to Mohawk General Store, which was still around. It's still in Silver Lake but at the time it was in Echo Park, really right down the street from my house.

Speaker 1:

And I remember walking by when they were opening the store, like working on it, and I looked in there and I was like what is this? Because Echo Park at the time didn't have the best stores, that didn't have a lot of interesting shopping. So I could tell by their decor that this was going to be something interesting and I was like, oh, this is good. So as soon as they opened I went down and talked to the owners, kevin and Bo, and I said I have these clutches, laptop clutches and you know these few bags. Would you be interested in carrying them? And they said, sure, yeah, bring them in. And then they were my first store and that was a great store because it was a cool store, so a lot of people from different areas and different buyers from other shops would go in there. So the bags got great attention. And then Stephen Allen in New York was my first store in New York.

Speaker 2:

He was the him and Verve. Those two stores in New York were the ones that were back in the day, the ones that dictated your success. Those two stores carried you Like that was it. You were in, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because buyers from all over the world go into those stores, and so that's how you develop your wholesale business.

Speaker 2:

It's interesting because in the realm of D2C, so many brands tend to forget newer brands, tend to forget the importance of boutique business. And that boutique business is your marketing, your paid marketing, because although you're not making the same markup of selling it directly to the customer, they're the ones who will do your PR, do your marketing, will pay you up front, will tell you the customer didn't like this, this one didn't work, swap it out. Do you want to do something with us? So you know building those relationships. You don't realize how valuable they were to you until you're like, you're able to reflect and say, oh my God, I wouldn't have been able to build this without that first store.

Speaker 1:

Yes, exactly, and I've run into different fashion companies who some are only direct to consumer and some are only wholesale, and I think, why would you ever do either one of those? We need all of it. We need you know, and I'm so glad that my brand started organically like that, because it was so synergistic and it really really was helpful, and how the brand grew and just became what we are today.

Speaker 2:

So so I mean this is. I mean, this is so exciting. This is like a one-on-one class on how to how to start a handbag brand the right way. How far in you doing this did you realize like, okay, this is my job, this is my business, I've made it, I'm a brand Because for most people, it's either getting office space or it's hiring your second employee, not your first.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's funny. I think those things were definitely important. My first employee was pretty important, though. My first employee was a woman named Jocelyn Mason and she was the friend of a friend and I just was.

Speaker 1:

It was a time when I kind of had stopped working the other jobs that I work, because I would always I needed to do other things to pay everything. So I was always like prop styling or being an assistant on sets, or I was working in production and like as a coordinator, I hated that job so much, working in production and as a coordinator, I hated that job so much. I was working, or with my husband working in French television, just always taking these jobs that would take a week or two, and every time I would do that I would feel like, fuck, this just set me back from my dream of you, take one step forward and two steps back, because I stopped working for two or three weeks, and then you're like, okay, where was I again? Reach out to those editors, reach out to those you know. So it got to this point where I was kind of turning down those other jobs, and I was. I just needed help. I needed help shipping. I needed to be two people. I needed to be two places at once, you know, because I was running back and forth to the factory, running downtown to get more materials, I was needed to be shipping, I needed to be doing outreach, I needed to be customer service. So a friend of a friend said my friend Jocelyn could do part time. So Jocelyn came in to work part time this was when I was working on my house and it turned out that Jocelyn very, very quickly became full time and we were just a team of two and we became exponentially more productive. It was amazing what that did.

Speaker 1:

So that's another thing that I always encourage young entrepreneurs is when they're starting something. I was like, as soon as you can get some help and pay the person, make sure you're paying them and see what you can get some help because you need it Very, I don't know. At some help you know and pay the person, make sure you're paying them and see what you can get some help because you need it Very, I don't know. At some point a friend of ours asked if their friend's daughter from Belgium could come in and be our intern and I was like interns, why do I need an intern? I don't. I barely have a business, why would I ever need an intern and what am I going to do with her? She came in, so she was technically the second employee and she again same thing happened, like then, the three of us are running this business and we were three like getting so much stuff done and it was just like moving and shaking. And that's when it felt like, okay, this could be something. This is really you know turning. But you know, I was still working on my house and I still felt like you know, one day at a time, but yeah, that was a great time, so much fun, and I had the gift of two really great employees.

Speaker 1:

The other thing I had was, even at that time, I very quickly employed or contracted a bookkeeper, and that's the other thing I really advise young business people is to get paid and to pay your bills, because that is something you know, especially as a creative, you might not be the best at and it's hard to ask people for money, especially your wholesale accounts, because they have more experience and they seem intimidating and they, you know, you're even just so grateful to be in their stores, you know, but sometimes they're not paying you and so you have to go answer them and it really sucks and I didn't want to be the person that did that.

Speaker 1:

So my bookkeeper would reach out and get you know, do accounts receivable and make sure that we paid all my factory at the right time and my supplier. So that was also extremely important and the lesson that I learned from that is just to really know what you're good at and what you're comfortable with and know what you're not good at. And I just knew that that kind of stuff gave me like that was a thing that I didn't like to do, and so I'm happy a woman named Elena was my bookkeeper. So I'm happy a woman named Elena was my bookkeeper and that was very, very helpful. So it was like me, jocelyn Mathilde and Elena, and that was the first team of Claire B, which at the time was Claire Vivier.

Speaker 2:

Vivier, oh my God, and how soon after did you realize? Like okay, I think I need to open up a freestanding store?

Speaker 1:

That was in 2012. Well, no, it was 2011. That was a fun part of the story is that I had a neighbor named Catherine Bentley, a great jewelry designer, very talented Los Angeles designer. She lived across the street. That's the thing about living in these great creative areas is that we had this street with a lot of creative, cool people on it, and she lived across the street.

Speaker 1:

We chatted in the street one day, talking about our businesses, saying we needed to get them out of our house. They're kind of taking over our house. So we said, well, if we find an office space that we could share, maybe we'll look into that. Sure enough, we found a storefront space in Silver Lake on Mitchell Torrena, two doors up from Sunset Boulevard, that we thought would just be our office. We didn't even think of it being a store. We thought this could be our office space and then we were like, wait a minute, this has a storefront. Why don't we sell your jewelry and bags and my bags at one third of the space? We'll split it up so that one third of the front of the store will be our Vivienne Bentley is what we called it and the two thirds will be our offices. And as soon as we did that, it was extremely successful.

Speaker 1:

Again, I think this was a really fun time in Silver Lake Echo Park area of Los Angeles, because there wasn't a lot of shopping but there were so many people that lived there, that were creative and had a lot of disposable income. I suppose it's like, you know, people working people, basically that wanted to shop in their neighborhood. So we did, we did really well that first year and it became very evident that I needed to move out of that space as soon as possible because we were kind of taking over the back with. Bags are a lot bigger, take out more space than jewelry does.

Speaker 1:

So the space at the corner became available and again, we're so naive, you know I was thinking, well, ok, I'm just going to take over that corner space as my office. I'll keep the store with you, vivian, and really that's what I thought I was going to do and it's so dim with it. Thought I was going to do and it's so dim with it. I mean, this is it's like it's a corner space on corner of Sunset Boulevard and Mitchell and Terena and it has, you know, full windows on both sides. So I was, I had to cover up the windows because you know it's just white paper, because I was using it as an office. Very quickly I was like hold up, this needs to be my own store. It's a beautiful store space. I need to find another space for my office and make this the first Claire Vivier store.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God, that's amazing. Is that wild? Like who knew yeah.

Speaker 1:

Who knew?

Speaker 2:

Was it weird to break up with Catherine no, no, we're still friends.

Speaker 1:

I mean that it was very natural, yeah it was like okay, my bags are bigger.

Speaker 2:

I think I need a bigger yeah and she was happy.

Speaker 1:

She. She created her own store there for a while, called Dream Collective, which was a fun adventure for her as well oh, oh, my God.

Speaker 2:

So now you have a store, you have like a what a five-year-old child. This is it You're doing this. How are you able to? Well, this is 12. How old would he have been? Like seven, something like that? Yeah, so how are you able to determine the trajectory from there? I mean, I've spoken to a lot of designers who were really hot that time because that was truly I mean. People say it, but I know it, I was there, I lived it. But that was, as far as I'm concerned, the first real historical rise of the independent designer.

Speaker 2:

Like that time a lot of brands came up. Prior to that it was really just big brands. And then this time everybody was kind of a lot of women were starting these very DNA specific brands. So people had money, people were shopping. Bendel's was open, you know. Barney's was still open. There were a lot of the stores that were buying product like this. And then the market because our job is as business owners, designers and so forth. You have to roll with the punches. You have to see where the market's going. You have to see how people are shopping differently. How are you able to navigate what's next? Because you know if you were to go from there all the way to the pandemic, I'm sure the business went really high. Then it went down, then it went high and then the pandemic hit and then you know it's like pivot pivot, pivot, pivot. You got to be light on your feet, especially when you're making a product that you know it's limited with how many one customer can specifically buy yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I think that there's a lot of elements, a lot of ingredients that go into a successful business, or, you know, a business that you can keep going, and I think it's a lot of tenacity, it's good design, it's you know, some smart marketing. There is a certain amount of luck that happens.

Speaker 2:

Right place, right time.

Speaker 1:

Right place, right time kind of magic. I do think that being in my neighborhood and having that corner of Sunset and Mitchell-Torino was pretty fortunate because it's Los Angeles. You know, new York and Los Angeles are, you know, are two big cosmopolitan cities that we have in this country, of course, along with others, but you know two of the main ones, and I think I was just extremely fortunate to get that space because it did really well. It became very apparent that I could open a store in New York very quickly, soon thereafter, because I knew where my web sales were coming from and my web sales sales it was doing really well at Stephen Allen and probably some other stores in New York at the time. So one year later opened up my second store in New York in Nolita on Elizabeth Street. So 2012, I opened Silver Lakes. 2013 opened Nolita and it's so ballsy, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then we just kind of opened up a store a year for, you know, 14 years. So now we have 14 stores, but I mean I've been doing it longer than 14 years, but really that's how it was for the first. You know it sounds crazy 13 years or so. And then the last year 2024 and 2025, we did not open new stores 2026, we have two planned. In any case, I think what I wanted to say is you know, there are all these ingredients to go into making a brand, but I think you just have to you know, notice what is successful, and what I noticed what was successful is the stores. So the stores were working for me and what products were working. And, yeah, I also think that I mean we can get into this later, but I think another element that was extremely helpful to me is partners. I had some, I took on some business partners along the way, and that was extremely helpful.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God, claire, I mean this is insane. I feel like we need to do a part one and part two. I think, if you're up for that, because there's so much, you know that and I don't want to hold you captive because this is just so it's just so exciting to hear because you are still here, your stores are still here, your product is very much still here. You've weathered so much. Even a brand rename which most people can't get away with. You know to go from Claireire vivier, which is who you are, and then have roger vivier come after you and then say you can't use your own name and then you say, screw it, I'm not going to deal with any of this legal stuff, because the legal costs and ramifications will supersede me fighting for my name. So screw it, I'll just change it to cla Claire V and other people will still find you and you know like that in itself is like that's risk. Maybe it's because you're from California that it doesn't seem like anything rattles you, because you are a very chill person.

Speaker 1:

I must say I think California suits me, but I do credit the chill list to be from my family. I think my dad was extremely chill and, uh, I don't know. I think it's part of my mexican heritage or something, I don't know. I attribute it to my father's side of the family. It has been a um, real boon, a real asset to be calm, to have a calm-ish demeanor throughout all of this, because I think it I don't know makes for a nice workplace. I think it makes for, you know. So there's no screaming or yelling at my workplace and we don't take I always kind of keep thinking things in perspective.

Speaker 1:

We're very fortunate to be working in fashion. You know, what we do is the only thing we're doing is trying to bring joy to people and trying to bring things that allow people to express themselves and feel good about what they're wearing. That is important work, but it's not curing cancer and it's not, you know, keeping people out of jail, and it's not all of the very. You know, keeping people out of jail and it's not all of the very, you know, educating people, all the things that I find to be very tough and noble professions. I feel like, you know, we're fortunate to be in this business. So let's keep things in perspective and keep it light and keep you know treating people well.

Speaker 2:

My God, claire, I want to. I'm going to hold you. I'm going to hold you to it. Now that I've made this mutual decision that we're going to have a part two, I would be so happy to Emily.

Speaker 1:

Are you kidding me? This is again. I'm very honored that you want to talk to me. This is our business. I'm so just you know, I don't know just touch that you, the business resonates with you and that you want me to be on your show.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God. Well, while people hear this part one, how can people find you follow you? Because we're obviously gonna have more to come, because I obviously can't hold you captive for the two hours I need to hear the life. That's Claire, Claire V.

Speaker 1:

I know we should do another out. We will. We'll put it on the calendar very soon. Well, you can find me at clairevcom and you can go to any one of our 14 stores. We have four in LA, newport Beach, Montecito, two in San Francisco, seattle, chicago, washington DC and Georgetown, and Nolita, brooklyn, brooklyn and Amagansett.

Speaker 2:

Oh, well, done for knowing all of them. Good for you. It's like trying to remember children's names.

Speaker 1:

I often forget one. It's often Montecito that I forget.

Speaker 2:

Ironically still in California, and anybody who doesn't already know God forbid, already know God forbid. It's Claire, without an I C-L-A-R-E with a giant V for Vivier and FYI. You were always the first. You will always be the first to me. Claire, thank you so much for joining us. We will absolutely have you back. Thank you, emily. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review and follow us on every single platform at Handbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time.

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Emily Blumenthal

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