The Bite Magazine - Summer 2019 - Issue 25

bite bags fascinated forms creative by architects Frank Gehry and [the late] Zaha Hadid.” She would love to see Olivia Palermo carrying one of their handbags, as she loves the driven entrepreneur and international style authority’s style and their bags have a simplistic style like hers. Like most designers, preparation for fashion shoots can understandably take quite a bit of work. Stacy says she starts off with a mood board of colours and styles that she would like for the shoot. “Often, it is examples of light or shaped shadows that I want to translate into my imagery and this gets refined a few times. The styling for a model can be difficult as I want to keep the focus on the handbags, and not on an amazing stripped dress or patterned blouse. On the day of the shoot, it’s really rewarding to see the final vision come together.” The designer enjoys every aspect of the design pro- cess including sketching and constructing, and could sit for ages sketching ideas for the size and shape of her accessories. “But when you know you’ve finally got the right look, it’s also fun to play with propor- tions and start to construct the model as well. This is where the tweaking comes in as the size gets final- ised - straps get shorter and the pockets get bigger before a proper sample is made in the factory.” Stacy loves working with bold colours and pairing them with other colours to make them more weara- ble, which have made them some of their bestsellers. “Our opulent teal handbags have light gold accents while the powder blue colour is matched with an earthy brown. That said, our classic black with a shock of red is usually where my sketches begin.” All of their accessories are made with Italian Saffi- ano leather as it has soft movement and is relatively scratch resistant, thus providing handbags that are not just made with quality but are timeless and built to last. At time of writing, Stacy Chan revealed she is con- tinuing to build the brand and develop new hand- bag styles with reversible leather bracelets and belts coming from Italy in the coming weeks. She also has a ‘camera bag’ going through the design process for next season. “In the future, I would love to ex- pand further into making additional accessories that build upon the same design and quality of the leath- er accessories.” For aspiring accessory designers, she would say, “Make something different! There are a lot of designers out there and it takes a lot of work and perseverance to be seen and build a brand. So, find your own voice and keep at it.” www.stacychan.com Images courtesy of Nia PR