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

Clare V and The Art of Intentional Growth: Part 2 | Emily Blumenthal & Clare Vivier

• Emily Blumenthal • Season 1

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Ever wonder what it takes to turn a small retail dream into a lasting fashion empire? Clare V, founder of her namesake brand, proves that steady growth, not viral fame, builds a real legacy. Starting with a 500-square-foot shop in Silver Lake, Clare turned local roots into a thriving retail network by prioritizing people over transactions. From matching a friend’s salary to open her first boutique to hosting in-store events and community-driven experiences, she redefined what modern brick-and-mortar can be—authentic, intentional, and profitable.

Her strategic discipline is what sets her apart. Clare walks us through how she uses e-commerce heat maps to pick new locations, tests markets through pop-ups before signing leases, and balances wholesale for both cash flow and discovery. She shares how retail exclusives protect brand integrity, how data informs design and merchandising, and why the shift from “Clare Vivier” to “Clare V” became a masterclass in rebranding with grace.

💡 Key Takeaways:

  • Growth works best when it’s deliberate, data-driven, and community-minded.
  • Protecting your name and pricing builds long-term trust.
  • Wholesale and retail can thrive together when strategy leads the way.

🎧 Listen now for a founder’s blueprint on sustainable success, creative resilience, and building a fashion brand that lasts.

Our Guest:
Clare V is the founder and designer behind Clare V, a California-based lifestyle brand known for its effortless French-meets-LA aesthetic, community-driven retail, and commitment to thoughtful growth.

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. 

#ClareV #HandbagDesigner101 #SustainableGrowth #FemaleFounders #RetailStrategy #ModernLuxury #IntentionalDesign


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SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, that was that was another leap of faith as well. You know, asking a friend to leave a job, a secure job to come work for you is and with you is is That's terrifying. It's terrifying. I think I had a lot of confidence. We were doing really well. And I think it just felt like it was going to be more fun with her there. So thankfully she did it, and she's still with the company today.

SPEAKER_01:

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, 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, Lady Claire V, aka Claire Vivier, aka the California handbag designer that everybody aspires to be best friends with. And now I'm like tier four for you. So I'm so excited. We're having you back for part two. Also very excited that I get to say this is with me. So thank you for joining us again, Miss Claire. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having me, Emily. Happy to be back.

SPEAKER_01:

Yay, good. Uh your publicist and I are best friends now because after our last recording, she's like, we have to do the part two. And I said, Oh, I know we have to do the part two. Don't worry about that. But I I told you we we left off. And for anybody listening, um, if you missed the part one, it was um it was, I'll I'll put it in the the comments where to find the first one. But your story is so unique and so special. And you know, it's interesting because we we are doing something with New York now. We have something called the it bag, and uh it's a unique section that has never been done in trade shows. As you know, in trade shows, you have a big booth or they'll put you at like an emerging designer table, and it's really problematic for buyers because they can't really see, feel, touch, and for designers because they overproduce, overcreate, overdevelop. So the premise of this is making it kind of a new way to trade show that the designers are only able to show eight to 10 bags at most, and the bags are merchandised kind of like a Nordstrom, so the buyers can walk through. There's nothing there. It's just the bags merchandised and uh a table, and that's it. So I can't tell you how many designers out of California have said, oh, we're working with Claire Vivier's factory. Oh, we we spoke to the factory that did Claire's bags. Oh, after your episode, I followed what Claire did and went and tried to find that factory. So you you would be you've been a role model to so many without even knowing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know what I like about that is that it's giving work to our local factories. And I'm a huge proponent of keeping keeping some production here in Los Angeles because I'd love to see how we have grown that community and happy that it's creating more jobs in our own community. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank yourself, as they say, give yourself a high five or a pat on the back. Whatever, because it all goes back to you. But we left off that you had just been able and took the bold step of having your own boutique. And uh you had initially shared it with another woman who who you had said had opened her own boutique with name like heaven something. It was something existential that she had gone out. I'm trying to remember what it was called, the forgive me.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm trying to as well. Her name is Catherine Bentley, and she no longer uses that other name for her jewelry line. She just goes, her fine jewelry line is just called Catherine Bentley. Oh, it was called Oh, her store was called Dream Collective.

SPEAKER_01:

That was it. That was it. I remembered, I was like, stars, moon, clouds, hopes, wishes.

SPEAKER_00:

Totally, yeah. I would have made it to dream. Some triangle symbolism situation. Yeah. As you do.

SPEAKER_01:

So was it bold for you to have your own store? I mean, your son Oscar must have been like five by then. He was still little.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he was little. No, I think he must have been nine when we opened that first store in Silver Lake, because we opened it in 2012. So yeah, 2012. Was I scared or was I nervous? I don't remember that. It just felt like a very natural process and it felt like, yeah, this is the next step. I think I'm always somewhat nervous to sign a new lease. I mean, I think I would be inhuman to not be a little bit nervous when signing leases because you know the it's a huge leap of faith every time you take a you sign a lease. And and we have a lot of leases right now. So it's uh it's a lot to think about. But back then it was my first solo lease besides my uh office space. How many square feet was the store? The store on the corner of Mitchell Torina and Sunset was pretty small. It's such a beautiful space because it's a corner, so you get tons of light, sunlight. And it's the best people watching, watching everyone walk by in Silver Lake on the on that corner. But it was quite small. I think it was around 500 square feet. And just recently, just this in the past few months, we expanded to the space next to us. So we broke down the wall, and now we have double the square foot or more than double the square footage now in that in that flagship shop.

SPEAKER_01:

Were you there all the time? Like were you the one interacting?

SPEAKER_00:

No. No, because I was running the business. So I was at the studio designing and doing production work and working with my team. And I mean, I had a very small team at the time, but yeah, no, someone had to keep the business afloat. So at the time, it was a fun watershed moment for me because I I thought, what am I gonna who's gonna run this store? Who understands who understands the brand, you know, who understands my aesthetic and my my whole vibe and the whole kind of mission of the store. And the only person I could think of was my friend Greta Heikemer. And Greta at the time was working, she had already always worked in fashion. She worked in showrooms downtown Los Angeles. And at the time she was working at a showroom, and I asked her if she would consider leaving her job and I would match her salary, and I would um see if she wanted to come over and run the store.

SPEAKER_01:

And was that scary for you to say matching an adult salary? Because it's not like you could say, I'm gonna bring you in, I'll pay you hourly like a normal floor sales person.

SPEAKER_00:

I know I knew I had to do it, you know. So so yeah, that was that was another leap of faith as well. You know, asking a friend to leave a job, a secure job to come work for you is and with you is is that's terrifying. It's terrifying. I think I had a lot of confidence. We were doing really well, and I think it just felt like it was gonna be more fun with her there. So thankfully she did it and she's still with the company today.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. It's a unique transition because I don't want to say it's a step down, right? Because you're in a showroom, you get fancy, you have meetings, you buyers coming through, you have the muffins and the breakfasts and all that stuff. Like somebody else is covering that overhead. Like I've been to these buyers meetings, I've been part of them. I've been, you know, it's it's a it's a lot of uh fanfare, right? Because these buyers are expecting stuff. They're expecting to be fed and coffee. Like 100%, yeah. And now you're bringing her to a like brick and mortar. How is like did she come through saying, hold on, we need to because running a boutique, as you know, there's a lot of like dead time, right? There's a lot of slow time during the day.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, was she like, okay, I've got ideas that we could do to make it work? At the time I was bringing her on also as a creative partner and as a creative member of the team and someone that I could exchange ideas with. I didn't have anyone at the time who was kind of my equal on a creative level. So I think at the time we brought her in as a she was managing the store, but she probably had like one day a week at the studio. So I think that was also quite interesting to her to have that also creative time.

SPEAKER_01:

So I think that's how I also but she wouldn't work weekends though, right? Like you couldn't have her there. I don't remember. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, now I know that we ask our st our store managers to always work one weekend day, preferably the Saturday, because that is the busiest day at all of our stores. And we really like to have someone most experienced working that day. So I don't remember at the time if we had that policy or not. Isn't that a blur? Isn't that crazy? Yeah, so many details. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just, you know, I know having worked with enough designers and telling them like, okay, the best time to pitch a boutique is when you know that it's like dead time, right? It's Tuesday at, you know, uh like four o'clock when nobody's shopping, or theoretically nobody's shopping. And how to keep someone at such a high level and keep them inspired and being like, oh my God, because working in an office when there's nobody there is one thing, but working in a boutique when no one's coming in, it's a huge brain shift of like I need to keep the momentum.

SPEAKER_00:

It's changed a lot. And I think COVID really changed retail a lot, brick and mortar retail, because you know, at the time all of our stores closed, and I think we all realized that in, you know, online shopping was in the process of decimating brick and mortar at the time, anyway. So I think we had to figure out how to be a little bit more innovative with with our brick and mortar stores. And that means doing a lot more clientele and reaching out to the people to people who can't come into your stores and getting those people who would be shopping online, but they live in your neighborhood. And so talking, you know, texting them, emailing them, telling them about new products, it's a lot more interactive than retail used to be. Used to be deadtime where people weren't coming in. Now that dead time is no longer dead time because you're supposed to be, you're not supposed to be, you are, you're reaching out to your customers and you're saying, Hey, we got this new drop. I'm sure that you're gonna like it. I know you love woven bags. I think this one looks like, you know, so we're sending pictures, we are sending even the merchandise is going to people's homes. If they want it, they keep it. If not, they return it. You know, there's all sorts of different, you know, retail models that are happening. It's no longer just waiting around for people to come in.

SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, you were talking about events. So yeah, this is that's another way that retail has changed, is that now we are actively doing events in our stores to get people in. And there's just a multitude of ways that retail has really evolved to be more of a community space, even.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, and I think a good template or litmus to test the waters is to see like how bookstores are busy again because people are looking for places to congregate and to meet and to find like-minded people that they can connect with. And even if it's a retail space, that's still the same customer who's looking for this book, who's looking for this bag, who's looking for, you know, the snack.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I love I love going into brick and mortar and I love being a part of our neighborhoods where we are with all of our stores and being part of this, you know, lifeblood that runs through neighborhoods because we don't want shuttered retail spaces. We want places that we can walk to when we're not in the office, when we are in our home. We want to get out of our house and we want to walk around and talk to people and see interesting new things. And I'm the type of person that's, you know, of course, loved fashion. So I love going into boutiques and I love seeing the new products and seeing what people are doing and then talking to the knowledgeable employees who can tell me about it. So I love all of that. So I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

That's I love that you're not retail shy, retail averse or uh space averse. Just just a question. So here you are, you're this brand, you're growing, you are opening up boutiques. You still have stores that are theoretically carrying your product, right? You're still trying to have other boutiques carry you, you're still trying to have uh department.

SPEAKER_00:

A wholesale business?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. How are you able to juggle that in terms of prioritizing product that would be at your store versus the other stores versus online and to make the customer feel still feel like she's getting something that she wouldn't be able to get anywhere else because she's special? How do you juggle that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there's a certain amount of product that only goes to our retail locations. It's called, we just call it CV retail exclusives. And those are sometimes margin challenged. We know that if we if we wholesale them, they are going to be much more expensive than we want them to be. So we keep them at our retail location so we can keep the price at a at a price that we think is the right price for for our customer. And sometimes we have, you know, the majority of the collection is available to our wholesale accounts as well as our CV retail. I mean, we have an amazing wholesale team. We have a showroom. We're in Finding Showroom in New York and Los Angeles. They do us such an amazing job with our retail wholesale sales. I think it's important to have both. I don't know. For me, that's just the way that I've always been. I've I mean, I started with a website, so I started direct to consumer, but very soon I went into the Stephen Allen Showroom, and he that showroom did so much for growing the brand. I think wholesale is important because it does you are in markets where you do not have stores. So you know, say Utah or Idaho or Mont Montana, you know, all of these places where you're not necessarily gonna have a boutique for a while. You are in great company in boutiques that carry other lines that are similar to yours and that the customer is buying both. It's a way for the customer to learn about your collection and then they might go to your website. But the other reason to do it is because it's it's good cash flow for your company. I mean, when you ship, presumably what happens is that you you ship these accounts and they pay you in 30 days. So that's just a good income model. You know, it's not like when you have your own, when you have your own store, you have to wait for individual sales to come in.

SPEAKER_01:

So Right, right, right, right. Yeah. It's a lot less dog and pony show because you know you will get paid, at least with those accounts. Yes. How did you go from that one store to saying like, hey there, I'm not busy enough. My life isn't challenging enough. Let's open more stores. Hey guys, what do you think?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was really it was really easy because the store did really well in Silver Lake, and we were looking at our e-commerce and we knew that we have a lot of we had a lot of customers in New York. And so I just it was very logical and easy to just say we should be opening a store in New York. And so I started to look. I found a real estate agent and I started looking for spaces, and I found a really cute space on Elizabeth Street, and that was just one year after I opened my Silver Lake store. That's wild.

SPEAKER_01:

And I you said looking at your e-commerce e-commerce, and so many brands I think neglect their not so much their customers, but the zip code of where their customers are located. So if you see people are shopping and buying your product from one particular area, if you have the means or capacity, it's logical to open up a retail location in that space. In that city.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. If you have the ability, I mean it is difficult to open it in a in a city that's far away from you. New York felt a little bit easier because it was a place that I was traveling to all the time. Stephen Allen is a partner in the company and he's in he's based in New York. It just felt a little bit more like home base for me. I think the first time it felt a little bit like, oh wow, that's crazy. It's a little bit out there was probably the maybe Seattle or the Chicago boutique, because they were just places that I didn't travel to very often. And we opened there because we knew we had a good customer base, but it felt like, oh, one of those moments when you're like the brand is much bigger than I am, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you open in a city that you were like, God, we bet on it, but it just it fell short, or you know, to create all that hype and then not have it work, like did you experience that with certain locations?

SPEAKER_00:

We haven't closed any stores. Uh we did a pop-up in Denver, downtown Denver, in in a new development. And it was a pop-up, and we decided not to pursue a long-term situation there because it was not a big retail destination. So I think that was our our taste of like you gotta really choose well and be in areas that your custom where your customer is shopping. And I think what we have discovered is that it is really helpful when maybe there's a built-in audience already there because there's already other great stores around you. So in Chicago, we're on Armitage, and there's really great shopping. And Armitage, Seattle's a really good example of that. Because we're at University Village, great stores at University Village. It's just packed all the time. So yeah, I think Dallas was our taste of that. But other than that, we haven't closed any stores.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so interesting. What made you think, like, let's do a pop-up and not open up a full store?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, what made you think like friends? Friends were doing it too. I have really good friends, uh Ren and Lindsay Parton, who are behind a store called Alchemy Works. And they're also kind of real estate developers and they're big dreamers and they love doing new projects. And I love their taste level and I love everything they do. So a lot of times, if it's a friend who's asked me to do something, I'm gonna go along and take a take a little risk with them because I know it's gonna be fun as long as we can figure out if there's a get out plan if it doesn't work out. So yeah, Rand and Lindsay were the two people that asked us to go to Denver and we said, sure, we'll try it out.

SPEAKER_01:

So Stephen Allen is a full-fledged partner still. Still. Because I know we spoke about him briefly. Stephen Allen has touched a lot of brands. Like I just had Peter Grayson on. I'm gonna talk to Joy Grayson. I've had Monica back here, like he's had it with his showroom. He's he is definitely uh a soothsayer in terms of seeing the value of what brands can be if he's involved.

SPEAKER_00:

I think so. Yeah, I think he's got great taste. I think he's really smart and great taste and a really nice guy. And he's not like I don't know, he's just trustworthy. I think he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_01:

Was that hard to get someone else involved? Were you because you were in a showroom first, weren't you?

SPEAKER_00:

I was in Steven's showroom for about a year before he introduced me to my current partner who is Tom Kart Sodas, and Steven introduced me and Tom and I decided to become partners, and then Steven bought um a percentage of Tom's equity. So that's how the two of them became my my partner, and we've been partners since 2012.

SPEAKER_01:

How because it was essentially just you, wasn't it? Like it was you, this mom, with you know, like, okay, hey, now I'm gonna open up a store, and I'm gonna open up another store. What made you decide that you needed a partner? Or Steve was like, Steven was like, hey, I've got this guy, he'd be a great partner for you. Or were you partner shopping?

SPEAKER_00:

I was not, not at all. I think Tom was looking for businesses to invest in, and so Steven introduced us because he thought my business was interesting and um a lot of uh possibility for growth. And uh the reason I was interested is because I am a creative person. I think I have a pretty good balance of left brain, right brain, but at the end of the day, where my happy place is is in the design room and the and creating things and loving the world of visual fashion, everything. So again, the art of getting dressed, expressing ourselves, all of that is where my happy place is. But to be a successful fashion business, you really have to, there's business is very, very important. So to me, it was kind of a no-brainer to take on some partners that had that business acumen that I knew that I didn't have, at least the experience. I know that I can trust myself, trust my gut, and I think that's so much of being successful is about is listening to yourself. And yeah, it just made sense to partner with paper business experience.

SPEAKER_01:

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unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. So how did you like when you met Tom, were you because I just find this so interesting, like taking on a partner because when you're on your own and you know, you hired, and I can't recall her name, your friend colleague at the showroom to run the store, like you've put a lot of blind faith into people that you knew, or at least got reaction, like, okay, I know with this person involved, it will be okay. How was it like you met Tom for the first time? And you know, it's like committing to a marriage relationship with someone. Like you're like, hey, you're shopping for something. I might have that something. Let's because then all of a sudden now you're reliant on this person that you really don't know, except for the word of someone that you trust. Which is a lot, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Very much so a lot to get a very good recommendation from somebody you trust, but it is also a got a gut feeling. I had a good feeling when I met with Tom. He seemed like a really good guy. I met with his CFO who became my CFO for a few years, and they're just very nice, down-to-earth, very smart business people who maybe didn't understand me and the what makes the magic of this company tick, but they understand that the company's doing well, and they were gonna be there to support this company that was doing well. And they've always been like, hey, do what you're doing. You're doing an amazing job. We don't even know how you're creating this magic, but we love it and keep going. So, and they were there to be that foundation for me. So yeah, I think I think every there's so many nightmare stories about business partners and like for fashion companies. And I think everyone has a different experience. And this is this has been mine. I have yeah, so far just nothing but positive things to say about this partnership so far. So thankfully I've had some partners who have really trusted me and I've trusted them. And I know they've been there for me when things get tough, and you know, things sometimes you just have these crises in company, and it's so nice to have someone to call. They neither of them live here in Los Angeles, so they are at a distance and they're not part of our day-to-day running the business, but they're which is probably better. Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Because that's amazing. Like this is you are such a unique individual because I think you can like you can sniff people out pretty quick.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I think so. I don't know. I just like nice, kind people and like hardworking, kind people. I'm not I think that's shown in the growth of this business why it has just been such a steady organic growth, and we haven't like skyrocketed and we haven't, you know, there isn't been this crazy growth where we've gotten into tons of different categories. You know, it's like this is slow and steady. We are a handbag company, we do some apparel, we are getting into different scents and candles, but everything is very like a measured approach because we um know your customer. Yeah, you know what she's looking for, right? We know our customer, we know what she's looking for, but also we just I don't I think we enjoy running the company. I think we enjoy working here. I want to make sure that people have a good quality of life, and I think that's what we're aiming for. Can I ask you something when you get to this point where you're like, No, this is it. This is it. This is it's not like we're working. I mean, we are constantly working towards a goal and we are trying to grow and we are loving the success that we're having, but also we're just like, this is your one life. Make sure that you're doing something that you enjoy and that you are creating an environment for the people around you to be able to enjoy as well. So that's what we're trying to do.

SPEAKER_01:

This is like, I honestly, I want people to listen to this this interview like a hundred times. This is because you're very, you're not. I mean, again, from the handful of times we've spoken, you seem very grounded. Like you're not the person who's gonna jump and go, like I could be wrong, but I think there's something very calm person.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's probably if you were to if I get the question of what's your superpower, it's probably that I'm that very calm person.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that that is 100% a superpower. I I just want to ask you two things. One, was Tom there with the name evolution? Was he part of that when we went from Claire Vivier to Claire V? Was he there for that?

SPEAKER_00:

We were partners. Yeah, we were partners at the time. Yeah, when we had the lawsuit, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, did that ruffle you, or was he like, okay, let's just be strategic and methodical, or was it you who said, you know what, Claire Vivier is now Claire V. You know, I don't need this. How was that handled?

SPEAKER_00:

We didn't have a choice. We had to get rid of Vivier so we had to move on and we workshopped some ideas of uh I don't know like things you could we could do like Claire Vivier or Claire V by Claire Vivier you know you could I could do that or I don't remember what were the other options but at at a certain point I just said no just let's let's do Claire V. I am still Claire Vivier I'm still the person behind the brand and we're gonna do it we're gonna be okay and I think we were just at such a early stage but at a at a really high growth stage as well so it was just kind of an easy transition for us. I mean it was painful for me I loved I loved having Claire Vivier as the name of the brand it's who you are it's who I am I think Vivier is a really pretty name and it is but you know I've always been a huge fan of Agnes B and I thought you know if Agnes can do it like we can do it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you seen Roger in any capacity ever since? Like have you crossed paths with him?

SPEAKER_00:

Well he's been dead for a long time.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my bad yeah he's it's it's the Todd's group in Italy who own Roger Vivier the the name but that that person the original shoe designer he has been dead for a long time so it was Todd's who came after you per se oh yeah that makes it that much harder doesn't it can't really go up against them no you don't want to fight that one more quick question about understanding your customer I teach within my class we have one lesson on ethnography which I show this video and any of my students can speak to and it's a really archaic video of this woman in Miami who is of Cuban descent and they're watching her come home and make dinner and she's talking about 30 minute meals and how Rachel Ray has this and she wants to cook healthy and you watch the food she's cooking and it's not healthy at all because it's an old video. And so that's something we talk about kind of ad nauseum is understanding your customer so well that you can almost predict what they're watching, what their show you know, what they're gonna buy, how many bags, what car, like how you know one location they might like more color in this location they like less color like you know anybody who's in Miami, obviously you need more color and we speak about this and I make it like a digestible case study that an urban outfitter's downtown would be very difficult in New York City would be very different from an urban outfitter's on the upper west side. How have you been able to utilize this kind of information about your customer to say, okay, I know her life I know what she's gonna want to buy next I know that in Seattle she'd want this but in New York she'd want that. Like how do you deal with that as a designer in a team?

SPEAKER_00:

We're looking at a lot of different data points and thankfully have members of my team who do that a lot better than I do. But they're constantly looking at the data points of who our her demographic is who our customer is who our woman is who our person is but all of our stores are kind of merchandised differently we see we look at the sales patterns and we have buyer a buyer a main buyer who is buying for each of the stores and that's such an interesting concept is that someone has to buy your own collection to send to weird yeah and it's you know you have something called open to buy dollars that you're spending to basically furnish your store merchandise your stores with the entire collections they're all different sizes all the stores so they all have different capacities but we're also watching what are the trends in those areas and they are getting more of whatever you just described you know more colorful bags for certain areas more black bags for New York City more they're watching these things these trends for the different areas that's isn't that interesting how you are an anthropologist without even knowing like understanding the patterns of her and how are you able as a team to say okay you know you've been doing this for quite some time you know your customer is getting older how are you able to say low-hanging fruit let me get her daughter let me get people within her family to keep them as loyal Clear V customers well again we are seeing because we have our stores we get to see the customers and get to know them. So we do see moms coming in with their you know 18 year old daughters and the daughters buying something to bring to college with them for the first time and then them telling their friends about it and coming in with a group of their girlfriends and then they're all buying so we are seeing these trends we're also you know actively going after marketing for different demographics you know so we're not trying to stay within the exact same demographic as this person is my age and getting older we're also going after you know my niece's age because my niece works with two nieces work with the company but you know we want to make sure that these are those are the two at their age group they want to carry Claire B as well well they should they do they better they do and all of their friends.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean you you'd be the coolest aunt to have I could say that it's I mean I think you just hit the nail on the head that like the daughter of your customer ends up becoming the influencer that you need to support because she's the one that carries more weight than even outsource college a college influencer program which is so cool.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is mainly we're starting with a lot of my my friends' daughters who are at college and they're so they're so cute and they're so stylish and they carry their mom's clairvi and I'm like she carries clair V awesome let's get her some more Clair V and let's get her to do a little TikTok video about it. So we're starting in that college influencer program as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So are you checking those girls uh TikTok following before you bring them on kind of thing like the same you would with the regular influencer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah I mean but she doesn't have to have a huge following it's it's we love the micro influencers too.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Well I want to thank you for finishing our part two I I think this has been absolutely amazing. I think being able to have you with the extended story and even your whole back retail strategy and growth strategy and understanding how you took on a partner and I just think 100% I think your grounded calm I I don't even want to use the word vibe because it's so trite but I think that totally lends itself. Vibe? Okay it's the vibe. But I think that really lends itself to someone feeling confident speaking with you and then to trust you I think that conversion is pretty solid that with you it doesn't feel transactional it feels authentic. And I think that clearly comes through with with your with your bags and your product so thank you for being part of this once again.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you Emily really honored to be on the podcast again. Thank you so much for having me doing this part too.

SPEAKER_01:

Wonderful okay thanks so much we'll have you back we'll have you back soon to talk about your next collection thanks Emily bye bye all right have a good one bye 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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