Handbags bring bliss for New York designer

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Fashion Writer

Handbag designer Bliss Lau recently introduced her creations in New York. Photos by Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I remember one morning when she was wearing purple sweat pants with a little pink skirt pulled over them. I asked her, 'Bliss, are you sure you want to wear two bottoms?' She answered, 'Yes, Mom, I have my own style, you know.' "

Oh, yes, her mom knows. And so does everyone else who meets Bliss Lau, who just turned 23.

Although she's a Hawai'i girl, Lau's edgy, urban, sophisticated style is utterly New York. And now that style is being translated into a line of handbags that is about to take the Big Apple by storm.

Although this is her first season designing bags (she just graduated from Parsons School of Design in May) her line has already been featured in style magazines such as "Surface," "Zink," "Stitch," and "Nylon Japan." She is also to be featured in the Women's Wear Daily (the "Bible" of the fashion industry) accessories supplement early this year.

She got her first big break when fashion designer Vivenne Westwood's publicist, Kelly Cutrone, bought a Bliss Lau bag and carried it to fashion events all over the city. Celebrities and fashion folk spotted it and sought out the bags. Mary J. Blige was the first celebrity to buy one. She chose Lau's large pink-and-white accordion style.

It was only a matter of months before trendy boutiques started buying up Bliss bags: Fred Segal in Santa Monica, Tracy Ross and Steven Alan in New York, and Aloha Rag in Honolulu.

There are now seven striking styles in her line, based on musical instruments: guitar, accordion and xylophone. The bags, made of the softest lambskin, come in small and large sizes and feature a multitude of practical zippers.

A tough road

Designer Bliss Lau studies the shapes of guitars, accordions and xylophones for inspiration in creating her handbag line.

Her unconventional Punahou portfolio consisted of a variety of three-dimensional works: blown glass, ceramics, jewelry and sculpture. The only garment was a dress made from leftover Christmas wrapping papers.

She jumped into urban life with both feet, living alone in New York, a city she had never even visited since childhood.

Parsons was tough, very tough, trying to prepare Lau for the cutthroat fashion world. "Oh, sure, Parsons can yell at you and make you cry. But you know that when you step out that door into the world of fashion, it will be worse and they'll not only yell at you, they'll rob you and abuse you," Lau said.

"Bliss was always fearless," her mother said. "She did tandem surfing and acrobatics. The first time I noticed her fearlessness was when she was four or five years old and we were on a speedboat. She was up in the front shouting 'Higher, higher, faster, faster!' "

Finding her bag

Throughout her four years at Parsons, Lau was on the dean's list. Her senior year, she completed her thesis using silks in organic shapes, creating garments that looked like spiders, tarantulas and armadillos i "Anything with a repetitive shape" i one week early so she could spend her last week creating a line of handbags. Although handbags were her passion, Parsons would not allow a senior thesis that didn't produce garments.

Lau's friend, Susan Stanton, who took art classes with her at Punahou and is now a New York filmmaker, remembers when, at Parsons, Lau designed a line of dresses emulating each of the bridges of New York. "She's always been innovative. I knew she'd be involved in fashion in an interesting way," Stanton said.

Ginny Lau of San Francisco, Bliss' older sister, remembers when Bliss was about 4 and her favorite thing was a Tiffany catalogue. "She fit that catalogue into her matching little blue purse and carried it everywhere with her."

Ginny said her sister developed her own fashion style in high school and it was "way beyond what anyone else was doing. She was never someone to conform. I knew she would do something that was her own."

"My bags were always more exciting to me than my clothes. I'm a controlling designer, and I like to use pure, organic shapes that look great as sculpture but look horrible on the body. Bags can be any shape" without having to flatter the figure.

Pitfalls in the Big Apple

Lau has experienced many of the pitfalls of a trusting Honolulu girl doing business in New York. Right out of Parsons, she was offered a job by an internationally renowned handbag designer. When she turned up for work, the job had already dissolved because of a failed merger.

She created a line of deconstructed sweatshirts she cut and sewed in her living room. On the day her business partner was to deliver the stock to Bonnie & Clyde's (a short-lived Manhattan boutique), the partner absconded with all the merchandise.

While Lau designed and made all of her earliest bags by hand from start to finish, the business grew too fast for her to keep up with the orders. She found a contractor with expertise in sewing leather to help her. The contractor, however, was stealing her patterns as well as substituting cheap leathers for Lau's lambskin.

Things are settling down for Lau as she works on her collection for the coming season. She will soon separate home and work by moving to a 350-square-foot apartment on Mulberry Street in SoHo. She will continue to work at her loft studio in DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for harboring up-and-coming women entrepreneurs.

Lau has a good working relationship with an Italian firm that provides her with the most lightweight and supple lambskins. Although calf is more commonly used, Lau finds lambskin the ideal material for her soft, sculptural shapes. Her hardware is gold- or silver-plated, and she finds it in the city. The lining is sturdy satin. Her current contractors provide high-quality work with an honest work ethic.

What's next? Lau plans to design smaller bags and the clutch styles for which her New York customers are clamoring. She has just introduced a "tampon pouch" for those unmentionables and is working on a concept for a "safe sex" pouch.

In February she hopes to go international, meeting with the Selima boutiques with locations in Paris and London.

The next Kate Spade?

Does Bliss Lau want to be the next Kate Spade? Well, not exactly, she said with a lack of conviction. Well, not right now, anyway.

Rather than opening her own retail shops, her immediate goal is to "Be in the best shop in every city everywhere. I would go crazy in my own shop, having to be in the same place every day."

But, seriously now, Bliss. Would you like to be the next Kate Spade? "Well, I hope so," she said with a sly smile.

Bliss Lau bags are sold in Honolulu at Aloha Rag, 1221 Kapi'olani Blvd., on the corner of Pensacola. Prices are $200 to $400.

Reach Paula Rath at prath@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5464.