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

How Sujin Osatarayakul Builds Bags Like Buildings | Emily Blumenthal & Kazumi Takahashi & Sujin Osatarayakul

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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For Sujin, handbags aren’t sewn—they’re constructed. Trained as an architect, she approaches her brand, Elemood, with the same principles she’d apply to a building: structural integrity, simplicity, and form as function. With no fashion or sewing background, she pioneered designs like the Mono bag—crafted from a single piece of material—and the Expert, made from one repeated pattern, creating sculptural pieces unlike anything in the market.

After a decade of success, Sujin nearly walked away from her business—until an Italian brand strategist and Japanese designer Kasumi reignited her vision. Now, their partnership blends Japanese minimalism, Thai craftsmanship, and architectural precision into award-winning designs like the Blossom Series, while navigating a shift from traditional exports to U.S. wholesale.

💡 Key Takeaways:

  • An outsider’s perspective can be a creative advantage.


  • Structural thinking leads to distinctive, lasting designs.


  • Collaboration works best when partners fill each other’s gaps.


  • Revitalizing a brand sometimes means rethinking the business model.


🎧 Listen for a story of reinvention, partnership, and pushing the boundaries of handbag design.

Our Guest:
Sujin Osatarayakul is the founder and creative mind behind Elemood, an award-winning brand merging architectural construction with functional accessories. Her work, with her partner Kazumi Takahashi challenges traditional handbag-making by treating each design as a building—crafted for beauty, utility, and longevity.

#Elemood #ArchitecturalDesign #HandbagDesigner101 #WomenInBusiness #DesignInnovation #FunctionalArt #CreativePartnership #LuxuryAccessories

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.

Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at

Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner

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Speaker 1:

She works the process of making which I cannot sew, so she can fill up what I cannot, right. So I think this is the way the partner should be that we don't do the same thing. So she has good at this thing and then she takes care of that. I can focus the rest. So now we kind of like have a design concept together and then she will do to make it happen and we will support by production in Thailand.

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. Welcome, sujin osata rayakun from elemood to handbag designer 101, the podcast. Sujin, are you in japan right now? I'm in bangkok, bangkok, okay, right, yes, oh, my goodness, this is so cool.

Speaker 2:

As you and I were speaking before and just to give our listeners some updates, elamood and I can't wait for everybody to look it up. Whether this goes before or after, will be at it. Bag X, new York Now make sure you walk the show and if you hear this after, make sure you check out the brand, because the bags are probably the most unique bags I've seen in a really, really long time and I'm so excited. We're connected because the whole premise of this podcast is to find designers, to hear their stories, to get inspired. But really, you know what your bags look like. They don't look like typical bags, they look like functional pieces of art. So I'm sorry I'm totally monopolizing this. But welcome Sujin, I'm so happy to have you here.

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you, emily, for having me here today. Yeah, yeah, I'm so excited too, yeah, how did this all?

Speaker 2:

like? You clearly were not a handbag designer before, because the way the bags look, they are structural, they are look like flowers. How did you? And are you from Thailand?

Speaker 1:

Well, yes, actually I am architect by training, training. I cannot sew fashion designer. I don't have that kind of background. So it happened that I started a business 20 years ago. We started another company before called Good Job. It's like more gift-oriented and colorful, playful. But after that we evolved more into a bag. Because when we do the product at the beginning we have a constraint that we need to utilize the material. So how to use the material up very fast, and so we come up with an idea that we need to do a larger piece.

Speaker 2:

So, with his bag, you started your own business 20 years ago? Mm-hmm, yeah, no, I just like. Because did you start your business on your own 20 years ago, or did you have a day job or you went straight to work for yourself?

Speaker 1:

I started like just only like a small shop, a beach shop, and why I also practice as an architect. Like everyone most people they have a dream. Like you want to open a cafe or to open a small shop. I'm one of that too. So I have a dream that be my own boss. So I just started a small business with a stationery, yeah, and but after a while I started making bags which I cannot sew. So we approached the bag making process by architectural background as a foundation to approach the bag. So instead of look at the way how it's sold, I just look at, like the building, that, how it's built, how to build a bag instead of how to sell the bag. So this is how we start our design philosophy.

Speaker 2:

Can I just ask you a crazy question Do you have siblings? Yes, what number child are you? I'm the middle child, that's why. So I have this theory about middle children. They're either hustlers or hyphens, meaning they're the ones who will take the most risks, they're the ones who will be the most bold, they're the ones who will do things that just to everybody else seem like huge risk, or they'll be the ones who will hide in the couch and you'll never see them again because they're not motivated, because being a middle child, that puts you in a very weird like do I blend in or do I escape and stand out?

Speaker 2:

Because to become an architect, that's a lot of school, that's a lot of rigor, that's a lot of rigor, that's a lot of work. And then to go through all of that to open up a stationary boutique, it's like risk, risk, a lot of work, risk, like none of the pieces fit together. Truly, if you were to look at it from a parent point of view, right, did your parents think you were crazy? Like what are you doing? Or were they like great job, Sujin, amazing, open that boutique.

Speaker 1:

Well, maybe because my parents is a business owner, so they quite agree if I happen to be my own boss. He says, okay, let's do it. And so when I told her that I want to start a back business, he said, okay, there is no expire, so good, you don't have to keep expiring on stock or something like that. And she's agree and she's already supported too.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, because to go from stationary to handbags, it's like one thing has really nothing to do with the other, but the origin story of how many people, how most of us, end up in handbags. It's like you get this idea and you think, oh, this would be interesting, and it kind of takes the responsible, the methodical, the organized person and turns them into kind of like a possessed monster. Like I get this idea and I got to make it and I got to bring it to market and you know, all the rationality and logic goes out the window to create this product. Because if you're going to do something like this, that's not what you are experienced in, it's not what you're trained in and the product doesn't look like anything else. The whole idea of like OK, who's my customer? How am I going to sell it? Who are my competition, like so many of those things that in a normal way are kind of out the window.

Speaker 1:

I don't have any business plan. I just do it because I want to try and it's just like exploring something you're learning and you get another degree and to doing business and I think it's kind of fun because I have a lot of interest since I was young and to like for the fine stationery. So the first bag that I made is actually a laptop bag, a bag that at that time, and we also start from a small station like a laptop case or an agenda, and so it's more like something to hold a piece of object. And I don't think it's more like something to hold a piece of object. And I don't think it's difficult because I'm doing things much larger in architecture, much more complicated, like I start from a larger scale and when I'm doing a small scale, like a product or a bag, I think it's achievable.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 1:

I have no fear to do that and my experience that I don't have experience to know how to sew. So I just try to look at the bag in a different way to see the construction, the form, and I question myself that why bag has so many patterns? How can we do bag with really simple way to construct it without just a few pieces? And then I came up with an idea that, okay, we should do a bat in a modular concept, just like you build geodesic dome of Bachminter Fuller, a geodesic dome that he used a triangle interconnected to become a spherical shape that contained a big volume. So that is the same way that you try to build a bag, not sew the bag, to make it in different shape, and to just try to find a way to build a bag.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited to share my new book with you. Welcome to Savvy Susanna's Amazing Adventures in Handbags and the Start of Susanna's Triumphant Journey to Become a Young Handbag Designer. Filled with ingenuity, fun and a hint of steam, susanna will inspire children and you everywhere to follow their dreams and put in the hard work to get there. Savvy Susanna is available on Amazon, barnes, noble or wherever you get your books. Thanks for your support. To make a no-sew sew bag like a bag that doesn't require sewing. Your bags have seams, though they're sewn right.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes, at the beginning, before this series, we call it Blossom Series. Before the Blossom Series, I started with a very simple bag Like this one. It's like we call this mono because it's made from a single piece, a single piece of bag that no bottom part, no side, no front, so it's just one piece. So we try to simplify. And this one also wow, same piece of a square, but you are connected in the diagonal way, and so it's use one pattern, four pieces, right, and that's it. Yeah, we call expert this model. So something is be more of play with the construction of the bag than the pattern or shape, or to make the structure to create its own shape.

Speaker 2:

Wow, Did you when you started your bag line? Did you still have your stationary store? Did you still have the boutique? Yeah, yeah. So was it one of those things that you did a pivot from stationery to bags, or you kept the stationery going and then said, okay, let's do both. How did you divide your efforts?

Speaker 1:

It's getting less and less because people's interest in stationery is getting less. In the last 10 years Like I've been doing this business for 20 years, but the first 10 years and the era of agenda or portfolio, so people still use paper for presentation, so there's some demand. But in the last 10 years, all digital, so no more portfolio, book or agenda required. So we dropped that line and developed more back design and in 2018, we did an exhibition in Japan. And that's when I met Kasumi, one of my co-founder of the Elemood. So we've been talking.

Speaker 1:

She's a hat designer before. So and she just came to me and asked if she can intern with me. Oh, wow, and I was like what? I've never had an intern before because I work with some designers in Thailand, but Japanese I never worked. But after we talked and I asked why she decided to work with us and she saw our bag the Boston Sealy because we got the G-Mark Award, and so she just like went to the award and see which bag she liked, to work with which company, and then she interested to work with us and okay, then let's try. And after working together for a few years, then I can see that her minimalist aesthetic and Japanese refinement that can help shaping our design, and she's like a bridge between the refinement of the Japanese and the craftsmanship of the skillful, of the craftsmanship of Thailand. So we didn't start Ella Mood. I started a company in Japan and then we later rebranded to Ella Moore. Was that?

Speaker 2:

weird to have a partner Like especially if you've been working by yourself and you know you making all the decisions. It's such a hard thing to do and I don't want to say later in life but later in your business, be like, you know what I'm taking on a partner and I understand she was passionate. You know you appreciated her perspective, her aesthetic, what made you decide, okay, I'm ready for a partner on this, were you like, okay, I can't do this alone, or I'm so excited to have someone who's just as excited as I am.

Speaker 1:

Well, I worked with some Thai designer before, but it was like after 10 years that I almost give up and stop. It's just like your question at the beginning, that after three and a half years and then what that question pop up. But that's after 10 years, because in the first 10 years I've been through exhibition, new collection every six months, go to a trade show in Europe, in Japan and everywhere. We won the award. We have a trading panel in many countries, right, we've been through everything and it's like I have a feeling that I'm done and I don't want to do anything. I want to go back to my architecture thing and you were burnt out, yeah, kind of. So it's nothing interesting to me anymore. It's like repeating and repeat, like that. But then it's funny that I met one guy. He's an Italian, he called a brand strategy, and I met him in Thailand. He actually my tenant, I have an apartment for rent.

Speaker 1:

Then everything you know, the people who came up to my life is all by accident. They were planned before and I met this guy and then we have a talk and what are you doing? And he's oh, he's a brand strategy from Milano and he worked for many brands Italian brand, furniture brand, and so we have a very nice talk. And then I told him that, oh, I have this bag, but I am getting bored and I don't want to do it anymore. And then he, okay, let me take a look.

Speaker 1:

And then he wrote me after a couple of days the whole analysis about my brand that, hey, I think you have a potential, you should do this, you should do a new website, you should do this, you should rebrand your logo design. And after talking I couldn't sleep all night. I'm getting so excited again and it's just like a new life and I say, okay, let's do it. And then let's. I mean, like he can point out many things and I can see that right, and there's, it's just like I come in the halfway and there's a long way at the end, so it keep me alive again, and so at that time it's.

Speaker 2:

I also met casually too if 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. 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.

Speaker 2:

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. 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 PODCAST to get 10% off your masterclass today. Everything came together, right.

Speaker 1:

And then okay, let's try. But when I met Hatsumichi, he said like work as an intern. But when I met her husband, she said like work as an intern. And we just thought that, okay, how about you come, you create a new collection and also refine what we have. And then I saw how she worked the process of making which I cannot sew, so she can fill up what I cannot, right. So I think this is the way the partner should be, that we don't do the same thing, so she has good at this thing and then she take care of that. I can focus the rest. So now we kind of like have a design concept together and then she will do to make it happen and we will support by production in Thailand.

Speaker 2:

I did the Handbag Awards for 15 years and one of the biggest takeaways was the necessity of community. Because to be a brand owner and I can only speak, I speak handbag right To have your own brand, it's exhausting, it's lonely, it's isolating, it depletes you, it leaves your tank empty, like cause. It's a constant. You know you're constantly going in a circle and it never ends Like okay, I've sold some bags, now I need to make some bags, but I, you know it's finding the joy of it. After you've done the loop over and over and over again for so long, it's hard and, like you said that, all these people that came in your life at that time like here you have your brand strategist tenant, who's Italian, then you meet Kazumi, who loves what you're doing, and you know the need to have community and have people who find joy in what you're doing. It's like that's where you get the joy back to what you came up with to begin with. You know what I mean. It's like we need these people around us to keep us going and you know because, at the end of the day, what's a handbag right? Every second person needs one, wants one, and it's harder and harder, as everybody says every day, to sell, to market, to find the customer, to keep the customer. So, because there's so much that goes into it, right, if someone looks at your product, the first thing they want, the first thing that attracts them, is how does the bag look? They look at the bag, then they'll look at the price, then they'll look at what it's made of and then they'll look, if it's online, what the shipping cost is. If they're smart, they'll look at what the designer has, the return policy, and only then will they ever make it to look about you. What's your practices? How are you sustainable? How are the bags made? What's you know? What's the inspiration?

Speaker 2:

So the fact that you've been able to do this as long as you have and now get this like rebirth right, like relaunch rebirth, like phase two, three, four, five, six, is pretty amazing, because you seem really excited about what you're doing and your bags. They're joyful, they're beautiful, you look at them and they make you happy and I think the fact that you've been able to do all that is really incredible. I'm so excited you're going to be here in New York with us so more people, because you said this is like you're new to the US. Just, you've only been in the US for a few years, just kind of dipping your toe in with the market here, so bringing your bags to the US is kind of new, right, right, right, yes, so you're excited for more people to find out about your bags, to see them. I think it's. It's really special.

Speaker 2:

How did you start bringing them to Europe? Was that more Kazumi, was that you, or was it? Ok, we're focused on Asia and, wow, because of social media, people found us Like how did all that come to be? Because, being in Thailand and Japan and winning all these awards, that's Asia. So how were you able to take it further, outside of where you are?

Speaker 1:

When I started. We have like export department of Thailand. They support the exporter. So I joined the trade show international trade show also, and they support the booth Sabbath, the Booth fee in Frankfurt, in Paris and so many many international fair. So that's how we export ourselves to the EU market.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you knew trade shows were the answer. That was the answer for you to get noticed outside of where you are.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, but that was 10 years ago. So after, like I told you, after 10 years that I started to almost give up, the trading landscape had changed. I mean, before there's like a big distributor and they buy from you a lot in a container and they distribute in their own country, but now it's more like B2C because of the internet, so that's no longer a distributor, because people don't want to invest a lot.

Speaker 1:

They don't want to keep a lot of stock. So all these distributors are gone, like what I have the first 10 years. They're all gone, so we have to start. That's one of the reasons that we start our rebranding with Marco. He's the Italian giant, because he helped me develop the website and also taught me how to set the price. And he said okay, you should do the price all inclusive Everything, shipping. Don't do price and ad blah, blah, blah. And that is a very good advice, because people make decision right away that how much they have to pay, right, and we cover everything door to door. So we develop our own platform online store. So now we sell more to direct and customer. But to come to the US is also our new channel too, because here we see the opportunity that we can see the wholesaler, and that is a new channel for us because we never, yeah, have this before.

Speaker 2:

Oh my goodness, sujin, this has been so exciting. I can't wait for people here and everywhere to learn more, seeing more, see more about elemood. How can we find you, follow you and see your beautiful bags? If you're not watching this on YouTube, you should be, just in case, how can we find you and follow you?

Speaker 1:

Okay, our Instagram is elemoodofficial and our website is elemoodcom.

Speaker 2:

And it's E-L-E-M-O-O-D. Yes, okay, amazing, sujin, thank you so much for joining us, and if you're not going to the Javits Center in New York August 3rd through 5th, do your best, try to walk the show. Walking the show is so important. You wanted to say one more thing. Oh, yeah, expect to meet you there too. Yeah, oh, my goodness, I can't wait. That's what I was saying about community that the more we connect as handbag designers, the less lonely we are and the more likely we are to be successful, because we need each other. There's enough handbags for everybody to go around, so I think it's our job to support, to uplift and to take care of each other. So I'm just so excited to have you here in New York. Thank you so much for joining us. 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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