Thursday, April 1, 2010

Three Facts About: Abbe Held, Creative Director of Kooba handbags

kooba

We decided to adapt the Three Facts About: way of featuring fashion designers from our sister blog ShoeFetish. To start our series of three facts, let's talk about fashion designer Abbe Held, the creative director behind Kooba handbags.

1. There are big similarities between bag designers Abbe Held of Kooba and Kate Spade of Kate bags on how they started to get involved in the handbag world. Just like Kate, Abbe was hit by the fact that living in New York makes hunting for handbags that had an edge or contemporary sense of style almost impossible. She was struck by "how much sameness there was in the marketplace". Therefore, in order to give answer to women’s plight, together with her mom, they braved the challenge of founding Kooba.

2. Abbe Held early inspirations for handbags came from collecting vintage pieces and hardware. When asked by the interviewer for 5 series of questions for designers’, Mariana Leung, about the favorite piece from her collection, she answered "an amethyst satin pouch that I found while shopping at a flea market in St Tropez”.

3. Kooba handbags are created for strong independent women who are not slave to trends but are keen for designs that enable them to express their individuality. Women who appreciate quality, craftsmanship, functionality and give attention to details are the targets of Abbe Held.

Celebrities:
Hayden Panettiere and her adorable Kooba Elisha handbag
Kristen Bell and her Kooba Dale bag

Source interviews:
purseblog.com and pursepage.com