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curb fashion: bag it!
Winter's freshest handbags feature bright colors and unique patterns
Metabags
“Metabags,” as designer Meta McKinney describes them, are fresh—a mix of textures, colors and patterns appealing to a range of tastes, from “artsy funky” to “tailored.” With prices hovering at the $100 mark, Metabags are often a pastiche of fabrics—anything from recycled wool to Chinese imports—featuring Lucite handles and offered in classic, square or flapper shapes.
“I don’t want to keep recreating the same thing,” says McKinney, an Appleton resident and former corporate librarian. “I don’t want what I’m doing this year to be what I did last year.”
Nearly three years ago, McKinney made a handbag for herself as a fluke she would later call serendipity. “I was on the street in Milwaukee and someone bought it off of me,” she says. “It kind of fell into my lap.”
McKinney currently juggles a six-week customer backlog of couture designs at www.metabags.com, while mass-marketing 50 ready-made designs to department stores around the United States. With the two pursuits running side-by-side, McKinney relishes the unique experience of each Metabag.
“This summer a woman brought me a fur coat. She had distinct memories of her mother wearing it, feeling it, touching it,” says McKinney, herself a mother of four. “I took a picture before we cut it up. That sentimental recycling has been really meaningful to me.”
Fashion Ninja
Fashion Ninja is an edgy, chic Milwaukee apparel and accessory boutique characterized by contrasting fabrics, solid color combinations and sexy cuts. New designs, like the exotic Elephant Sleeve Top, are launched regularly, mixed with old favorites like the elegant Ambassador Blazer and Solid-Ring Floral Print Purse.
“Having Fashion Ninja has been the best experience of my life,” says designer Areka Ikeler, who launched her clothing line three years ago after breaking from the design program at Mount Mary College.
Since her boutique has doubled in size, Ikeler is currently focused on extending her brand to Chicago, bolstering Internet sales at www.fashionninja.com and instructing at her own Fashion Ninja School of Design. Ikeler balances her 14-hour-a-day design career with her affinity for Milwaukee culture.“When you’re doing what you love, there is no clock in and out,” says Ikeler, who cites the human form as inspiration. “Milwaukee keeps me and my work real.”
Flying Fish Design
Flying Fish Design is a prototype of “handmade d.i.y.” culture, associated with the online “indie” community and the new wave of craft fairs, exposing the public to emerging designers. Mixing art with fashion, Flying Fish Design specializes in handmade bags fashioned from multicolored sequins, glass beads, felt appliqué animals and pattern stitching.
“I am inspired by urban decay, hand-painted signs, unnoticed details, old paper,” says designer Faythe Levine, who moved to Milwaukee in 2000 after becoming enamored with its “industrial, working-class charm.”Levine, who currently balances online marketing at www.flyingfishgallery.com with local events, showcased her recent designs in an August 2005 solo gallery show entitled “Fur & Feathers Never Tear.”
Despite the challenge of competitive wholesale pricing, Levine remains fiercely loyal to the ethics behind her label: strictly handmade—no underpaid labor or sweatshops.
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| it's in the bag: One-of-a-kind handcrafted bags like this one are created by Wisconsin designer Meta McKinney. photo courtesy meta mckinney |
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slideshow: designer showcase view a photo gallery of fashion designers and their designs |
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curb magazine 2005: balance for wisconsin's young professionals
