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

Inside the Handbag Machine: How Cathy Schwartz-Shino Defines Real Brand Power | Emily Blumenthal & Cathy Schwartz-Shino

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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Ever wonder why some handbags turn heads while others disappear into the crowd? Cathy Schwartz-Shino—veteran of major handbag licenses and founder of Edit Accordingly—pulls back the curtain on what truly makes a brand unforgettable: a strong identity, the right partnerships, and attention to detail. Today’s shopper doesn’t wait for department stores to declare what’s in; they chase meaning and individuality. Whether it’s vintage, upcycled, or a fresh new silhouette, Cathy explains how licensing, royalties, and cohesive design DNA separate authentic brands from imitators. Her message is clear: success isn’t about copying luxury—it’s about owning your signature.

Key Takeaways:

  • Authenticity Wins: True success comes from defining your own brand DNA, not replicating others.


  • Strategic Growth: Regional strategy and selective partnerships fuel sustainable expansion.


  • Creative Focus: Mood boards, collaboration, and local curation keep collections relevant and distinct.


🎧 Tune in for a masterclass on building longevity and luxury in an ever-changing accessories market.

Our Guest:
 Cathy Schwartz-Shino is the founder of Edit Accordingly, a consultancy that helps brands refine their creative and business strategies across the accessories space. With decades of experience leading handbag licenses for global brands, Cathy bridges design and commerce—helping companies craft products that resonate deeply with modern consumers.

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 emilyblumenthal.com. 


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SPEAKER_00:

The young shopper now, the Gen Zs, and then a minute ago the Millennials. They're not shopping at the department stores, maybe for their basics, but for a handbag? You and I are of the generation where, you know, I want what everyone else has. That's when I was a kid. This generation is way more savvy.

SPEAKER_01:

They want to be unique. Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert, and the handbag carry godmother. Each week we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers to 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 speed to it all. Welcome, Kathy Schwartz Chino of Edit Accordingly to Handbag Designer101 the podcast. Welcome. Welcome, welcome.

SPEAKER_00:

Emily, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

So, Kathy, you just asked me why did I have you? Well, I think there are very few people who know the industry inside and out, who've worked all different angles and pieces and parts and had the opportunity to be entrepreneurial within the space of handbags. There are not a lot of us. In fact, I'm not even part of the us because I never was. I was like coming in to have meetings with those uses. It was never me. But I think your perspective is interesting because you've worked on so many different facets of what handbags are. And I think there's a lot to gain from your experience. So that's it.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for seeing me and celebrating me and championing every piece of the puzzle that sometimes we don't see ourselves. But yes, and I love the introduction.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, well, there you go. So I know at present you are on a handbag of hiatus, as we call in some shape or form.

SPEAKER_00:

Handbag hiatus when it's your personal love, of course, at the end of the day. But yes, in the business sense of the world, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So we we were just chatting about how some people can get very bitter in the fact that the industry changed, the business changed, there's no reason to do handbags, that the tariffs, that it's too expensive, that the margins are bad, that delivery is bad, shipping is bad. And there's so many rhyme, there's like a a hundred rhymes of reasons to not do it, but much like much like being a musician, where they say it's impossible to make money as a musician because you know there is the streaming and rights, and there's still people who get famous, right? Always a way. Right. There is always a way. And I was having this conversation with my students when we were talking about their ideas and brands and businesses. And one of my students said, Well, you know, it's impossible to make money. And I said, Yeah, it is impossible to make money except for the people who are making money.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, at the end of the day, whether it's specific to handbags or any element of apparel or garments, couture or fast fashion or whatever it is, women and men need to be dressed. And many of us care about our image and how we put ourselves into the world. Yeah. And the person who says, I can't make money, of course it's not easy. But you have to pivot, you have to be smart, and you have to not, in my opinion, not follow what you did last year or what that guy's doing, where the white spaces, how can I see what would be interesting here? Because at the end of the day, we love fashion. So many people love fashion, whether they're in New York City, LA, or in smart parts of the world, right? We all have access to social media or all these public platforms. We all see things that resonate with us, whatever your style is. Do you love an Hermes bed? Do you love something cute and a little baguette? That and everyone has a different budget. And even what I love so much, even the Gen Z that you wouldn't think typically had the funds to invest in a designer handbag, they've redefined vintage shopping and upcycling and putting a really lovely spin on it. And handbags, in my humble opinion, and I know you have to agree with me, turn your look into a head-to-toe look, right? You have the right handbag on, and you've taken that simple t-shirt, a cool pair of high-waisted pants and a la Samba sneaker, but now you have a stick, Chanel bag or a really bag that feels great to you, and your shoulders just went a little higher, you're walking down the street. There is always a customer for that. You just have to think how to find them and where are they shopping and what are they gravitating toward and what are what inspires them to find their uniquely you piece of the puzzle?

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. So majority of your career, and you can correct me if I'm I'm wrong, has been in handbag licensing. Can you explain what that means?

SPEAKER_00:

So, again, not to date myself, but while this piece of the business isn't very big at the moment, when I entered my career, a lot of where the money was happening would be, for example, apparel designers, knitwear designers, well-known names, or maybe not well-known names, but well-known names, wanted to turn into lifestyle brands, right? Maybe they so again, being in the handbag space, they would come to companies where I was at and pay a royalty to the host to utilize their name and depending on who the licensed partner was, create products with their name on it. In my case, we had the luxury of partnering with so many really great brands that allowed the handbag experts to really take front and center to understand what the landscape looked at that moment in the handbag world, who were the retail players, what should the DNA look like, but truly inspired by the designer's aesthetic. The successful brands, in my opinion, were ones that it really felt seamless, that there wasn't a license partner on the other side. But to answer your question, companies like us would get a percent of sales and each contract would be different.

SPEAKER_01:

So essentially, just to for the layman, a royalty is almost a rental fee.

SPEAKER_00:

A little, yeah, absolutely. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. So how because I think your angle is really, really interesting. Because I don't think, you know, again, very few people who've been through iterations of so many different different brands under different homes, essentially. How did it work? Like, okay, just for example, I know you had one of the companies you worked at had the license for Christian Siriano. How did that work? So, did you learn, like, did he come in? Because I know sometimes the the names of the brands aren't even around. So, how did it work hypothetically with licensing? If you could talk about that.

SPEAKER_00:

I would preface the answer to that question to say the ones that work the best, where the it was the designer, let's use Christian, absolutely had a point of view. They absolutely had a design aesthetic, and they absolutely had a following. The ones where it wouldn't work would be someone who's just wanted to make money. We just want the royalty, we just want the rental fee. Well, we had the luxury, and I was really blessed throughout my almost 30 year career to meet people like Christian who said, I absolutely have my point of view, and I want to inspire you, but I also trust that you guys understand the space. So if you're telling me, you know, Kathy and Team, that these are the retailers we should align with, this is the size of the collection, and these are the pieces of puzzles that the handbag community are working for, it was that synergy and that collaboration that made for success. So basically, where the beauty would come in, it depended on the season, what have you, but let's say there were five and or four markets a year before the market, basically the designer would come in, kind of show us what they were doing in their world. Let's use Christian, you know, in his space. And he had two interesting sides of his business. I always felt when companies decided to say, let's make it cheaper, let's make it cheaper live. That was never my MO. Doing that doesn't get someone to buy the brand name, whether the name was good or bad. It had to be beautiful. We can certainly tailor the cost depending on, meaning the retail, depending on who we were marketing it to, who we were selling it to, who the customer was. But really, our job was to say to Christian, based on where you are and how we are envisioning your brand and your aesthetic and what we can do based on sourcing, based on trends, based on what we think niches are. I never typically followed what other guys were doing and tried to do their version of that bag. Right, right, right. We wanted to do something new. And we were lucky to be aligned with designers like Christian, who love that philosophy. You know, they always say, particularly in handbags, it is about the brands. Absolutely. I'm not going to deny that. But there also has to be an it factor, something on the bag that when you are walking down the street, you know, from a million miles away, ooh, that's a Christian Syriana bag. Oh my God, that girl is carrying a Zach Posen bag. And finding those elements by no means is easy. But if you can identify that and really collaborate with the name, what inspires them, coupled with your experience in handbags and being collaborative with your retail partners, also really hearing not just what's working for them, but what they're looking for to be able to create that together, really can be magical. So I'm always thinking best in class retailers, who are going to be the right partners, to embrace, let's use Christian as that example again, what he has to offer, coupled with our expertise on what we have, what's happening in the landscape of retail and in that particular life in the handbag landscape, what's driving businesses, what's oversaturated, what's under-saturated, what doesn't exist right now. So we would work with Christian, you know, top of season to get his big picture creative ideas. We would then circle back to him, you know, with some mood boards and some prototypes, meaning initial pieces of a handbag, a silhouette, a color. Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

Who who made the mood boards? Did you have like the assistants do that? Or was it collaborative?

SPEAKER_00:

It was collaborative. You know, some of it would come again, it depended on the designer. I actually want to circle back to use Ivanka Trump as a name, if that's not polarizing or not. You know what?

SPEAKER_01:

She had a brand. It's business. Like this is business. Like she had a brand, she had licensing, just like multiple other people who may or may not be uh of interest to people. But go back to Ivanka.

SPEAKER_00:

Before we had any political ties to her name, and what I really commended about her is that she brought on a best in class team, right? And so you asked who created a mood board. In her case, her team, because to your point, she had other categories that she was licensing out from footwear to apparel to coats and then some. She would host a big collaborative meeting where all the licensed partners from each category would come in and see their big picture direction. These are the prints we're embracing for this season. This is the mood of safari or whatever it was that they felt. And it was up to each licensed partner to take that mood board and then translate it into a collection, into pieces, into storytelling of the same narrative. So that when you went into perhaps a Bloomingdale's or a Lord and Taylor or where Nordstrom, that the story from department to department felt harmonious, right? So that when they were doing marketing was a harmonious story. And when the customer and consumer was shopping the brand, once it got to retail, that there was a there was a synergy between all the lifestyle categories.

SPEAKER_01:

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 and Noble, or wherever you get your books. Thanks for your support. That sounds like a very logical way to go about it in terms of like having a collaborative meeting in terms of okay, that to bring everybody in, let's have a brain trust, let's talk about it. Because, you know, like Christian, as as I've known and heard, and he's got a good reputation, he's hands-on, he knows his brand, he knows his DNA, he gets it very open-minded. Yeah, and that's that's tricky because so many people are not. Like anything, it is also challenging, right? Because you're hired as the person to be an extension of what the current brand is. That's right. Because again, you're also being paid. We've all dealt with difficult clients, but at the end of the day, like your job is to service them. How do you handle like I call them basement to Beyoncé? Because there's plenty of brands who are successful and popular and profitable. But what happens when you've dealt with a diva and they're like, I want to be like Chanel, because everybody, you have at least one every five clients, like, I want to be Fendi, I want to be here, I want to be this. And it's like, but you're not even at Nordstrom, like you're at Macy's, like your customer is a Macy's customer, therefore the product needs to reflect a Macy's customer. Like, you can't have your brand that's Macy's, and then all of a sudden, you know, the handbags are gonna be sold at Neiman's or Saks. Like it does not, like A does not equal C.

SPEAKER_00:

And you are a hundred percent correct, Emily, in that you can't get around that. That said, if you come to said designer from a place of poise and knowledge and research and perspective, you can quiet that noise a little bit more. I'm not gonna say it was easy every minute of the way. We definitely had some challenging conversations along the way. But you know, a lot of times I want to be Chanel, I want to be Fenzie, I want to be Gucci, I want to be a Neiman's, of course, who technically doesn't. But if you position it in a way, it not only I don't land from a place of here's where you can make money. I land from a place of let's start best in class, as best as we possibly can go. And each brand had a different jumping off point. I would kind of say we can get to the volume that you want if we kind of start from creating that identity. And I always circle back to that. I think the challenge becomes many, not the ones I was with, but many licensed companies are really about making money. And I know I sound silly saying you can't lead with that, but I don't believe you can lead with that because sure, maybe a season or two, you'll make some money. But where's the longevity? The goal is to say don't follow what Chanel is doing. Don't be the cheaper Chanel. Why why is that fabulous? Don't be the, you know, less expensive Fendi. What do you stand for? You stand for something. Let's find that. And so if you can kind of position it to them and not only show them where the white spaces are and how they are not even seeing the beauty of their unique qualities, we can now help you bring that into your handbag category. Great retailers. And no, not everyone's ready for demons. But usually we got lucky that most partners would listen along the way and understand oh, those brands are at Macy's too. Oh, okay. Maybe Macy's is okay for me. I know I wanted sex, but you're right, maybe that would that's take there's been too many no's. You know, thank you guys for trying. But and to be fair also, Emily, there is also a huge level of respect, at least coming from me. Those designers are names, mine is not for a reason. So if they have something that they really want, it's our job to also try it, but in a way on our terms, and marry the two things together, you know. If of course Christian wanted to be in Niemans, and he was an interesting case because he had his couture in the best in class retailers, and then he had pay less. And our job was tricky to kind of marry the two. And I think we did a decent job of doing that, actually, and and giving something where in the happy medium, again, it is better if I go and say it's better if all licensed partners are on the same page, but that's a very tricky navigation because unfortunately, most of them are not as open-minded as my me and our teams were, and we weren't as vision thinking and long-term thinking. So it does get tricky with other licenses, but we figured it out.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you think? Because everything you're saying is is pretty much on point for how a brand, let alone an independent brand or new brand, should really think strategically. Know your DNA, understand your customer, have all the pieces of the puzzle together, because obviously that will influence pricing, that'll influence how they're bought, it'll influence your volume, that's right, your social following, all of that. But where do you think in terms of where the market is now? Because everybody moans about tariffs and it's with good cause, let's be honest. It is, but it's today, it's not forever. That's right. It is not forever. And again, people still need to buy back. So the one thing, I mean, the one good thing is that with challenge comes craftiness, comes out-of-the-box thinking, and with comfort comes static blah blah. Like you need to keep that kind of hunger going. Unfortunately, it's draining and it's exhausting, but depending on which side, it's like it's exhilarating and it's exciting. How do you see the handbag licensing business evolving from obviously the market is diluted now because D2C is so big. With the designers that I work with and my students, I always say, like, so many people now are obsessed with D2C, Drift to Consumer, but without having boutique business, and that's not for every brand, for every brand that is most likely at the level where you were at, boutique business probably wasn't even on their radar because they've aged out or grew out of it. Not true.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, because and I love that you just mentioned that, because being strategic, really, in my opinion, for most brands, and we're gonna this, I love everything that you just said because there are so many jumping off points that one, some of our most successful partnerships weren't always about the brand name on the bag, but was to your point, understanding how to build it for long-term success. Yeah. We heard this quote a thousand times it's not a race, it is a marathon. I fully, fully embraced the trade shows, the coteries, the premier class in Paris, and some of the other fabulous ones too. The nice thing about that is you learn a lot because very often the buyer of the boutique, and that boutique doesn't only mean the one stop shop on Main Street. It could be a chain of specialty stores. What we're saying is it's not the Macy's, the multi-tiered, you know, those guys have lost a lot of their appeal because they're all following what the other guy's doing, and now you look the same. You haven't got sensitive to your markets. But the boutiques are really the ones often that the owner of the boutique is very often the buyer, the manager of her team, and or hands-on in the store. You are getting valuable knowledge. So many of our brands were started at that specialty store level. Now, granted, times were different, but my heydays and my fondest memories are of those trade shows, the coteries, ah, you're working a weekend. I can't wait to work this weekend. I can't believe I had to spend extra money to bring in my friends from the outside to help us writing orders fast as we can. And you know why? Yes, sure, some of it was at the name, but it's because we found unique ways to present their product and not look what that guy's doing, and not look what that lady's doing, but doing our own thing. So, first and foremost, these specialist orders would come into the booth, what is that? That's so interesting. Red Vaz zebra hair cap. Oh, that's so interesting. That cool lock. What is that? And you know, those who know know what brands I'm speaking at when I say that. But seeing consistency and showing that you understood that level of business, those guys aren't promoting. They are struggling to keep up with the promotions, but if they stayed in their unique curated way, that's who's appealing. Those are the stores that the young, everyone wants the young shopper now, the Gen Zs, and then a minute ago, the millennials. They're not shopping at the department stores, maybe for their basics, but for a handbag, you and I are of the generation where, you know, I want what everyone else has. That's when I was a kid. This generation is way more savvy. They want to be unique. We love that. That really gives a new opportunity for particularly specialty stores to have a resurgence. I hate that we lost the momentum. I know that trade shows definitely had a dip for a minute. Some of that had to do with consumer shopping, and some of that simply had to do with costs. But if you go back to your tariff thing that you said in the very, very beginning, you said, oh my God, the tariffs. Well, that's if you're trying to get it cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. No one likes a bag any better because it's a dollar cheaper. They don't like it. End of story. Sorry, but most people who need a new handbag don't maybe need a new handbag, they want one because they want to feel fabulous. They feel like it updates their whole outfit. They were terraced five, six, well, how many years ago with that? We survived, but you know what happened? They happened again, and now you're just the ones that are getting cheaper are out of business. That's not the answer. No one needs a cheaper handbag. They want something that makes them feel beautiful because maybe they're not gonna buy a new coat this season, maybe they're not gonna buy new jeans this season, maybe they're not gonna buy a new blazer this season. But that new bag just took all of those pieces and made it look like a brand new outfit. And it's something that becomes a status symbol, regardless of its price point. You know, who do you admire? What do you like? What is it that you love? Is it something vegan? Is it something sustainable? Was it upcycled? Is it luxury? Is it something I found, you know, in my vintage shopping and all of these cool what goes around comes around type of stores? You know, young people have embraced that, but for such a sociologically good, productive way, you know, and I love that. They are not interested in the cheapest bag at TJ bags.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it's I love all these takeaways. I'm just curious, do you think, like the companies you worked for in your heyday that had multiple handbag licenses under one umbrella, do you think the reason why so many of them went under or couldn't continue or didn't see the purpose in continuing was because the cost of maintaining a team did not correlate to retail sales because so many retailers' business had evolved and handbag licensing still very much exists, but the manpower to now reconfigure and recalibrate where that brand should be is definitely not like, okay, we'll bring the Macy's buyers in, we'll bring the Neiman's buyers, we'll bring the Ross buyers in. Do you think that's the reason for this evolution? 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. 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 an in-depth course from sketch to sample to sale. Whether you're just starting out and don't even know where to start up again, 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 Emily Blumenthal.com slash masterclass and type in the code IMCAST to get 10% off your masterclass today.

SPEAKER_00:

I think like everything in this world, the price of everything has gone up. The reality is those on the teams, regardless of the size of the teams, have gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, the traditional retail landscape has basically consolidated to that if you're not in bed with that one retailer, that retailer, you are either in or you're out. And that could bury a company. Diversifying, yeah, and keeping, you know, diversifying your assortment and your offering and your retail landscape could in if you can weather the storm get you on a path for long-term success. Most unfortunately, in my opinion, most those that are left that are still embraced in licensing slap the name, put it on a bag, negotiated as much as they could for the factory. You needed maybe that formula worked 10 years ago. I never liked that formula, but maybe it did because there were many of those retailers that could buy it. That's just not the case anymore. That retailer is buying him and not her, and she's now out of business. So if you really think inside the old school ways of who the retail partners are, there's very few of them. But so many people are shopping because the teams need to do their legwork and see it might take more work to align with boutiques. You have to have the bandwidth for that. You have to have the stamina for that. But there's such beauty and game to be coming from that, you know. I think those that fell had two big misses, and that is trying to make the cheaper chicken. Cheaper didn't make it prettier, cheaper didn't appeal to someone new out of the box and didn't get customers into your store, let alone to buy the cheaper green bag instead of the one over there that looks like the cheaper Chanel, the cheaper bag. Like no one wants that, right? I I think the other hiccup was that I think some of the the cost to participate in finding the specialty stores got really high for a lot of these up and comers. To be honest, behind the curtain is expensive. Licensing is even that much more expensive. So I do see that a lot of brands, big ones, small ones, emerging ones, you know, next up ones, are attempting a D to C. They don't know where else to start because it's so expensive. But it is very expensive to have a D2C business because operationally the costs are crazy. Your team isn't going into sales and researching, it's going into getting that out the door. The other piece of it's marketing. It's really costly to market. Licensed teams are not doing that. They're certainly not spending any money that they're making from the licensed partnership on it. And then often the brand, the owner of the brand, is marketing many other things. So there's a huge disconnect, which is some of the reasons I think that licensing might have, you know, fallen off a bit, right?

SPEAKER_01:

How do you think someone could have a successful license now? Like, why does someone go into licensing? Well, they have enough brand DNA that they know it can translate into another classification or category. Why do you not do it in-house? Because you're calling upon someone whose specialty, let's take handbags, their specialty is handbags. That's what they do. They have the relationships, they have the connections, they have the resources to take, like you said, take that DNA and translate it. Licensing is still very much a moneymaker, but you know, the whole goal of bringing on someone else is volume, right? You want someone to get hundreds of thousands of. Units sold of your product, not the tens, not the fives, not negotiating with the factory like a smaller brand saying, what's the smallest MOQ that you can do for me? So how do you think, in your professional seasoned opinion, one could have a successful license now with the state of the market?

SPEAKER_00:

I would be definitely embracing it now. I think I don't honestly, I don't know if I have the answer. I think what you said makes a lot of sense. I think it's a two-fold thing. It's not just brand not listening to what best in class licensed partner has to say. I think that a lot of people have maybe lost their confidence and maybe lost sight of the reality at the end of the day. Of course it's about making money. I'd be a fool to say it wasn't. We wouldn't keep our lights on at the end of the day. But if we did go back to grassroots a little bit and really took the license, the people who held the licenses, the manufacturers, the handbag experts for this conversation, if we went back to that philosophy that did work many years ago, which was what does this said designer stand for? What's the aesthetic? What makes it different than everything else out there? How can we put something unique out there? And how can we streamline which retail partners make sense and stay aligned with that? Because so many traditional retailers have merged. I mean, obviously, we remember days when Federated was lots of little stores, right? And all every unfortunately, they're all one big store now. Maybe if that's the formula and you have to align with one partner, you you've chosen Macy's as your benchmark. Well, Macy's in Arizona is not the same as Macy's in Florida. I think what could really kind of mush this back together, and I know costs are tricky, but I think there needs to be a lot of synergy and work and investment made on the regionality of some of it. Yep. I think that we've gotten away from that. And I think that could, if we did focus on that, you could definitely inspire specialty stores because typically they have one to let's just say 10 stores in specific markets. But if you really picked Macy's as your choice or Bloomingdale's as your choice, and you stayed laser focused on each of their stores, and it doesn't mean create different collections, but really being sensitive, not just to the A door, the B door, the smaller assortment. Oh, now the E door's got the worst assortment. Why? The person in that e-store community, if that's what you're calling it, they have access to social media just like everyone else. They know it's fabulous, just like everybody else. Yeah. So I think that unfortunately, between everyone trying to get things as cheap as possible and cheaper than that guy, plus just losing sight of being unique and sensitive to each regional area, age is not the thing anymore. It's just not like whatever, maybe I'm older, but I have a young sensibility. I want something that feels cool and fabulous to me, right? It's not, I think I'm in Vermont now. I'm a New York City girl. I live in Tribeca, right? But I'm in Vermont now. Does that mean I all of a sudden wanted to go to their local family dollar store and get the whatever tote bag is in there? Of course not. I'm still me, regardless of where I am, you know. So I think if we could stop the sole focus being on tariffs and let's get this cheaper, how can we cheapen this bag? Right. Coupled with some sensitivity to carving out the niches and finding, I love the term uniquely you and making something special. You could even probably be very successful with a Macy's or a Nordstrom or a Bloomingdale's. Unfortunately, you probably just have to pick your lane and stay laser focused on it.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's a really great way for us to wrap up. I have this conversation with my students just because Urban Outfitters is the easiest case study that's visible. So, you know, I asked my students, who knows urban outfitters? Hands go up. Has anyone looked at the assortment? Assortment's a word you need to learn. Assortment at an urban outfitters. Again, we're in New York City, the assortment on the upper west side versus the East Village. Okay, hands go up. And I'm like, okay, let's talk. Do they sell the same product? And then that opens up a dialogue. Actually, no, they can't. It's a different costumer. This one has this, this one has that. And then I say, okay, who's not from New York? Yeah, I'm from Virginia. I'm from here. I'm like, okay, talk to me what they sell at your urban outfitters. And it's usually the product that didn't sell at the other stores. So again, like I really think what you said hit the nail on the head is regionality. I think that's a great way for us to really wrap up. That it's so much more because I talk about this ad nauseum. Yes, product is key, but unless you understand your customers' ethnography of how they've evolved, what do they have to drink, what coffee, what car, what color. You know, the person in the Florida area, even in Florida, the Tampa customer is not the same as the Miami customer. So, but they both will probably be more likely to like a brighter print, a lighter color. You know, they'll be more likely to be bolder in their choices than a New York customer versus a New Jersey customer because they're driving to go shop. So I think going back to the drawing board and really understanding what makes your customer tick is probably in it sounds like in our collective opinion, would be the secret to how licensing could probably get its footing back within at least within handbags. But again, I think people have become, I don't want to say lazy, but people have continued to try and say, let's just keep the Macy's business. We'll get it cheaper, what you know, what this door, that door, this units, and it's you have to kind of press pause and say, all right, we need to go back and really do an analysis on our customer. Like I've had um, I had an incubator, I've hosted a few of them, handbag designer incubators. And every single time, every time these customers, these designers within it always believe that their customer, regardless of price point, is this fabulous, metropolitan, beautiful people person. And then the next point is when I ask them who is their customer, I will get the range of 15 to 60 or 15 to 65. And it's really funny because, you know, the 15-year-old is not buying for herself and the 65-year-old's messaging you because she's looking for an activity and is excited to connect and just want someone to acknowledge what she's done. So, you know, you need to find that sweet spot, and then you need to go back and see, okay, we can't hit up nationwide off Macy's doors. Like, let's focus on the doors that we know where she, he, they are, and let's go back to the drawing board.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you want to wrap that circle? I do in an idyllic world, some of that's on the retailer too. We used to have buyers for different regions, they used to have different store names under the umbrella. Unfortunately, there's so much on the buying teams now, too. Yeah, they're no longer coming in and looking at the actual product often. Yeah, not that's not everybody, right? They have too much on their plate. Yep. Right. So they're not solidation too much. Consolidation, actually, just saving the dime today lost you thousands tomorrow because and that's unfortunately affected both ends of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my God. Kathy Schwartz Shino. How can we find you, follow you, learn more about what you're doing right now? How can we learn more?

SPEAKER_00:

Learn more. Well, I launched Edit Accordingly. It is an image consultancy and a style clinic, really here and setting out to champion women, helping us all feel seen and celebrated sometimes from the oasis of our own closets. I also align with companies to make sure that their teams understand the strategy of looking great on the job and avoiding the confusion in the workplace to be more productive. So you can find me at at editacordingly on Instagram as well as at edit accordingly on LinkedIn. And you can also check out my website.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, and if anybody wants to find you on LinkedIn, it's Kathy with a C, Schwartz S-C-H-W-A-R-T-Z, and Shino, spell it for us. S-I-N-O. S-C-H-I-N-O. Okay, it dipped out a little bit. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, Kathy. 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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