Function Versus Fashion

These are two different bag categories, that also valid with other fashion items. They can come up in one out of the two, or both. Let's review the difference, how we take them into account, and how to combine the two.

FASHION BAGS
Fashion bags (or other fashion items) basically include giving the eye a treat. They're not about what's comfortable, not what we would take out with us to go to the mall. They're all about thinking outside the box. The more original and even outrageous, the better. It's about making a statement.
Fashion bags can express your feelings, your visions, your wild imagination. They're art. You can do whatever you want with them. Therefore, they can be made from any material you want. From plastic to music discs. Anything goes. They're show bags.
For it to be fashion bags you must think outside the box. You have a better chance to get noticed if you make a fashion statement in your design. You might be inspired by the hungry children in Africa, and like in any art, you can make that into a piece of art. The situation of that subject can give you ideas for the design, the colors, the material, etc.
With clothes, they have "Couture". Those are usually the clothes you'd see in the biggest fashion shows, on the catwalk. At times, you'd see out bursting dresses that no woman in the world would wear in the streets or just for the mall. On the other hand, those are clothes that are made to order. Those are the clothes you will not find in the stores, and they usually cost A LOT. The biggest designers make them. And you'll see them every year in the season's collection of the designer.
When I mean fashion bags I don't mean the latest fashion trends of bags, or the high class bags. I'm talking about a show. Making this kind of bag is for show. Sometimes they're not even wearable. Sometimes they don't even look like bags. That's why you can go crazy with them, and give your imagination freedom.

FUNCTIONAL BAGS
With clothes the right term is "Ready to Wear" (RTW). These are the clothes you will see at the stores, and you do get to buy them. They can come at any price. And if this term is for clothes that you can wear, with bags it's the bags that are "ready to carry". Now, that's not a real term as far as I know. But just to make it clear.
They're all about comfy and functionality. They're useful. They're easier to carry, and they're the ones we want to take with us to the same mall we wouldn't take the other kind of bags to.
Functional means things like: pockets and their position, comfortable straps (more comfortable to use with an adjuster, or long enough to sit nicely, they're material, etc.), better closure, the size, the shape, if it's got things like feet, zipper pull, and more and more. You get the point.
In this kind of bags, the functionality will come first. We think about the uses we will do with them and then the rest. We could make a list of the things people usually put in their bags when they go out (that's why I posted that other post earlier, showing you pictures of what's in people's bags). It's important for us to know what will go in there in order to know what functions we want to do in our bag design. For example, most people carry cell phones in their bags. So it might be a good thing to make a pocket that will fit a cell phone. Or if people always take keys with them, it might be a good idea to place a strap inside the bag so you could easily reach in, and find the keys easily. And of course the size of the bag is in the function category. If you take your entire house with you when you go out, or if it is a bag for dropping by the neighbors' house, size would matter a lot.
And colors/fabrics are important too. In the sense of if we like a certain color and we would love to carry it around. It's always nice to carry something you like to look at, and enjoy taking with you. And if it's winter time, the best functional thing you could do is using water proof materials, interior and/or exterior.
There are many many details in a bag that can make it more functional. It all depends on your use of it, and your needs.

COMBINE THE TWO
The fact that there are functional AND fashional bags doesn't mean it's supposed to be one of them only. There could be a bag that is more for show but it's definitely wearable, and there could be a bag that is very unique, even in its material (even if it's plastic) that can be carried around and get many responses. If you can combine the two, go all the way with it! (Again, when I say fashion bag I don't mean it looks high fashion, beautiful, expensive or super elegant).
In my opinion though, a bag that has both must be functional first, then fashional. Like, we have the basic data on the bag we want to make, and we know it's gonna have, say, many many pockets for a cell phone, keys, pens, etc. then we will make the pockets, that we already know we will, then we can think about how to make it more fashional and super original that screams 'FASHION'. So we have pockets, but in a fashion kind of way. For instance, we can make the entire bag from regular fabric, but the pockets will be made from a few zippers combined with each other (zippers play has been seen before in fashion, trust me). Just take a regular element that is very useful, and think how to make it more Fashion like.

Now all you have to do is think hard what you want to do and make it right!

Name the Bag #3

Another bag design for you to name!
This one took me so long to make this one. And it was hard too. But I'm happy with the results.
Anyway, you can start making suggestions for this bag's name. The final names of the bags from the last round will be announced later on, along with this one.
Can't wait to hear (read) your ideas! Be creative!
(Also, do you like the color? Because I'm not sure about it)...

This bag is multi-functional. You can open it wide and you can do many things with its situation, like sit where there is nowhere to sit, or use it as a table mat if you wanna do a picnic, or whatever you find good doing with this. There are also many pockets inside, and 2 short handles. Zipper closure for all sides.

A Note

If you've been trying downloading the tutorials of the blog and lately gotten an error message, it's because it's overloaded. There are only 200 downloads per day in the file hosting site where I host the tutorials for you to download. If it's past that number per day, you cannot download the files in that host.
So if you've been having troubles downloading the tutorials, try again on the next day.
Sorry for the inconvenience!

What's in the Bag?

When making a bag, sometimes we think fashion forward. But sometimes we want it more factional, sometimes it's more important (I will write about fashion versus function soon!). For us to know what to do with the bag to make it functional, we need to know what people put in their bags, what you put in your bag. So I've collected a few photos of people's bags. What they put in it, what they take with them when getting out of their house. As I said, I will write about it more later. Meanwhile, here are some photos that will give us an idea on what people carry in their bags, so we know how to design the bags according to the essentials:

Name the Bags #2

And here are more bag designs I made (I'm getting an obsession here!) And again, I ask you to name them (send to me, leave a comment, or any other way you want to suggest names):

Design #1 =

Design #2 =

Design #3 =

Bags Got Names

A few days ago I showed you a couple of bag designs (sketches) and asked you to name them.
Well, names were chosen. Here they are......

The first one is: "Coming From Nowhere" =

There is the sketch, without colors:

And the other bag's name is: "Under Wings" =

The colorless sketch:

Later today, or soon, I will post more bags for more names. Thanks for the suggestions!

Family Matter

How does the family find its way to your own personal world? Doesn't matter if you're close with it or less connected, both physically and mentally. They have a connection to your businesses as well, sometimes only genetically. How does it fit with our topic, the bags?

Making bags could be pleasure or business only. You could be doing it out of need, but in most cases we do it because we love it, it gives us satisfaction. And family, well they're experiencing it with you. Any business, not only bags. Whether if it's your paycheck or your hobby. I'm guessing there are not many families who are connected to their loved ones who don't know about their little business/pleasure. And sometimes they come into the picture, or being forced into it.
For example, until I'll open my studio, I'm doing all my bags business from my parents' house, in the kitchen, and on the kitchen table. And it's not only uncomfortable to me, it's also uncomfortable to my family who are being forced to deal with my passion. Right now I don't have a choice. But that's only one example for how families are a part of our business.

Sometimes it's the fact that you're doing what you're doing and your family just knows about it and they could be either supportive or against it for some reason – like thinking you can't possibly make a living out of it, like in many hobbies. They think you should find yourself a job where there is some steady paycheck. But if they do support what you're doing, they're sometimes being very very supportive by buying (or getting for free) your creations. Not only because they're your family, but also because they think you're talented. And sometimes it's a family thing, not just you. A family business. What a great thing! Then the supporting factor is a given. But of course there are times when business and family clash, and then there's no good there.

And there is another angle. The genetic angle. It could be that the creative gene is in your family. Like in my case, my family from my father's side is very creative. That's why my only profession could be art related. However, I'm the only one who actually practices in it. And being the only one who does that, I'm getting a lot requests for bags from the other members of the family. And a lot of complements. When I started getting serious, I got a request for 3 bags for 3 different women of the family, by other members of the family, as birthday presents.
But I do have a returning customer in my family. My mom. She bought and received many bags from me. That's true for today. Because when I first started my first bags, and I was obviously very excited about those crappy bags, my mom was brutally honest with me, as my whole family are, and that's hard sometimes, but thank God for that. I wasn't a kid who drew a picture and her parents told her that her drawings are amazing, and perfect, and gosh, you're the best artist ever. No, I've been treated fairly, and I see it as a good thing. So when I showed my mom my first bags, she was honest with me and did not show any excitement of them. No, she didn't like them as much as I did. Maybe to you it sounds harsh, and I thought it was too back then. But you know what, it's good. She was right. Today when I do make worthy bags, I do get her compliments. So when she tells me her opinion about something I made, I just know she's telling the truth. My father, too.

It's great to have a family around you to whom you can show your designs. Especially when they tell you the truth, and especially when it's both of your parents. I'm not even sure my friends would tell me the truth if I show them a crappy thing I made. Because if someone tells you the truth, you know you can get better, fix what's wrong. My dad sometimes would look at a bag I made and would tell me there's something that seems not right to him. I could argue and explain, but I can also trust that he tells me what he really thinks.
Every time I finish a bag, first I show it to my parents. Then to anyone else who would take a look. But it's only my family who would tell me what they really think.
So now that I made a huge progression since my first "no no's", I've been getting more compliments from my family. And I know I've gotten better, because my mom keeps buying my bags or getting them as presents, and she is proud of me, and she does love my work.

So family can be a very good thing to share your passion with. It can also come in your way, but mostly it might get you better - money wise, creative wise , career wise… you name it! It can be something that often can be missed. It can give you a different angle. Sometimes I ask my family whether I should do something in a particular way or not. You could always use another set of eyes, as many as you can. Either way, your family is connected to what you're doing. With bags, it can be very helpful. If your family is not like mine, you can try finding help in yours. They are the people who you can usually trust in this. So, yeah, family has to do with bags, believe it or not. They're part of it just as much as you.

Please Name My Bags

I found a bag making contest that I really want to participate in. I just ran into it, and thought I'd give it a try. This is not "the prettiest bag" contest, it's a different kind, because it's more complex and you should really think original, which I love. There is very little time till the deadline, so I'm working hard on all of the things they ask to see in your submission. It's a professional bag making contest, so I think I just have to participate in this.

So far I made 2 sketches of 2 bags, and there's more to do, and if there is time I'll make more. But I have less than 2 weeks, and a lot of work. I present you 4 of my sketches (skethes only, not real bags yet). And we're supposed to name our bags. I thought I would ask you what you think I should name these two bags. So go nuts!

You can either write your suggestions as comments to this posts, send me an email (daphna@creativecutie.com), shout it in the shoutbox, or any other way you want!

Here are the two bags (I might make more if I have the time, because I think I could do better):

#1 - with many "wings" and zipper closure:

Another view:

#2 - with 4 sides zippers, plus one in the middle. Handles can go either way.
Above view, when it's open:When closed:

Recommendation #4 - Pink Lemonade Boutique

It's been a while since the last recommendation. So if you haven't read the previous ones and don't know what this is about, I encourage you to check them out. Basically, I haunt around the net, looking for winning bags that I want to share with you. So this time it's not one bag that I'm recommending on, it's the designer herself, of Pink Lemonade Boutique. There were way too many bags in her Flickr's photostream that I couldn't choose just one. It wouldn't be fair to you, nor to the bags. So here are some pictures of some of the bags that I really wanted you to see:

When I encountered the photostream, I was definitely blown away. Lisa (the designer) has not only a designing talent, but also the eye. I was amazed at how well she manages to put the right fabrics together. She makes the right combinations. The fabric combinations make the bags "not shallow". They make them special. And that's the strongest part that I liked about Lisa's designs. I simply wandered around her gallery, having treats to my eyes, and was really sad when I got to the last page. Don't get me wrong, there are many bags there, but I couldn't help but wanting more. You know what it's like when you really like something and can't have enough of it.

In Lisa's bags, it's enough to just be depended on the colors and fabrics. It doesn't have to be a super original design, because the fabrics and their combinations do the job very very well. But there are designs that combine both, the design itself AND the amazing fabric usage.
I also really liked the variety, there is enough to choose from, yet you can't choose only one. They so different from each other, yet you can tell they're from the same collection of bags. And it's a style that I'm sure most people would like.
There are also the small details like bows, flowers, appliqués, which are damn cute.

Sometimes it's hard for me to find the right combinations. And sometimes I come up with a plain combination. With Lisa's bags, it cannot happen! I don't know if she actually works hard on finding the right ones, but to me they just seem effortless. Not the work itself, but the combinations, it looks like she's using her magic wand and pulls the fabrics out of her sleeve. Because it's just so well done.
She seems to have been experimenting in many techniques, and tries thinking outside the box, which I always like. She's bold, and she dares and does that with a big success. "Make it work"? She always makes it work! The last thing you could say about her bags is that they're boring. They're exciting, which is why I have so many things to say about them.

Lisa is now having a clearance at her Etsy shop, with great prices. I'm just sorry I didn't find her sooner, because her store is about to get totally cleared. But the store isn't closing, she's bringing new things which I have no doubt will compare to the ones she's clearing right now. The clearance prices are great, so grab them as fast as you can, and do drop by there again for the new collection:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pinklemonadeboutique?ref=pr_shop

And, just to be accurate about the treasures I found, the Flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7636984@N03
Wash your eyes, and be ready to get the desire to buy those kinds of treats!