What happens when you walk away from decades of designing for other people—and finally bet on yourself?
Karen Cardoso spent 30 years behind the scenes designing handbags for household names like Jessica Simpson and Franco Sarto. But when tariffs upended her production plans, she didn’t fold—she pivoted. That moment sparked the creation of Bolsa Nova and introduced her to the magic of Italian wash leather: soft, slouchy, and totally irresistible.
In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, Karen shares:
✨ What it’s really like launching your own brand after years in corporate
🇮🇹 How discovering Italian wash leather changed her business overnight
🧵 Why she refuses to over-develop and only creates what her customer actually wants
👩‍💼 How her “ideal customer” wasn’t who she expected—and what that taught her about branding
From QVC to Nordstrom to specialty boutiques, Bolsa Nova’s slow-and-smart growth story is a lesson in staying agile, owning your instincts, and designing with purpose.
🎧 Listen now.
Our Guest: Karen Cardoso is the founder and designer behind Bolsa Nova Bags. With a background in designing for major brands like Nicole Miller and Franco Sarto, she brings decades of industry experience to her own line of buttery-soft Italian leather handbags that blend casual luxury with timeless appeal.
Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the “Handbag Fairy Godmother,” Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.
Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com.Â
Buy Emily’s Books: “Handbag Designer 101” & “Savvy Suzanna’s Amazing Adventures in Handbags”
Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So again, we try to keep it really tight to season
so we can make those changesreally fast and also buy into
what my retailers may be buyingat the time.
If I don't want to buy hundredsof pieces, I buy 50 pieces, I
buy 20 pieces and I just tack onto another order.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, EmilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert, and the handbag fairygodmother Emily Blumenthal,
handbag industry expert and thehandbag fairy godmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:37):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all, to it
all.
Welcome, Karen Cardoso of BalsaNova Bags to Handbag Designer
101, the podcast.
Welcome, welcome.
(01:00):
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, like I was telling you,it's been a minute since I've
had an independent designer,which always brings me joy and
makes me happy because you knowmy people, if we just dive right
in.
You had said you had been inthe business for 30 years.
Yeah, Was it bags?
What was it like?
Let's just throw ourselves backin.
Yeah, so I?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I worked in New York City for 30 years for multiple
brands, always as kind of what Icall a ghost designer behind
the scenes for licensees or youknow, big companies that had a
lot of name brands.
I've worked on wallets,handbags, cosmetic bags, pretty
much any type of like leather ornon-leather accessory Slugs as
(01:38):
they call it.
Slugs right, that I meanliterally was the slug queen for
a long time.
Small letter goods, yeah, slugsfor people who don't know.
And you know, did it for a lotof different brands within
companies and then kind ofpivoted to handbags worked with
like designer brands likejessica simpson, franco sardo,
(01:59):
nicole miller, uh, bacchier, um,you just a lot of that after it
was sold.
Yeah, okay, after it sold, butMonica was still there at the
time.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Um so we would work together yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So it was a fun time.
But you know, around sevenyears ago I was like ready to
pivot.
A lot of things were going onin the industry and I just
really didn't want to like startover as a full-time designer
and ended up starting my ownbusiness from my house, doing
consulting work first, you know,because that's you don't have
to pay the bills.
So I did that for a long time.
I did a lot of consulting workfor friends in the industry who
(02:33):
needed whatever.
They needed a handbag, aplanogram, a sketch, you know, a
cad, anything and startedbuilding the brand, which is
Bolsonova.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So this is really great because you obviously knew
how to work with factories.
You knew what was needed, youknew tech packs, so forth, what
factory was like, what it tookto develop a line, to develop a
collection, especially since,working on licensed brands,
you're under very specificconstraints as to what the
(03:08):
expectation is, because itobviously beyond needing to
match the DNA of the brandhypothetically Jessica Simpson,
where the retail or the fashionmight be one place, the handbags
will be someplace else, becauseobviously, with licensing, who
actually makes it goes to thebrand that already has it set up
, not so much the people who ownthe brand name.
(03:29):
Just an overview of licensing.
So was it always in the back ofyour mind like one day I'll do
my own thing, or was it?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
okay, I was.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know this is what I want to do, and it's a day
job and I'm good with that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You know it was.
I always wanted to do it, asanyone.
It's a scary proposition, rightJust to like drop everything.
You know you make a good salary, you have a great career just
to walk away from that is scary.
To do something on your own soand we were at a point my
husband also supporting me atthe time, you know, through this
whole transition we were at apoint where I could do it and I
had factories that were willingto work with me at the time of
originally in China, becausethat's that was my where I was
(04:11):
working at the time in ratherbeautiful leather factories,
high end leather factories thatdo a lot of designer stuff, and
they were great.
They got me in business.
We did two lines with them andthen the tariff started going up
the first round and realizedthat this was seven years ago.
Yes, so right before thepandemic, right?
(04:34):
Wow, beautiful wash weatherthat I fell in love with and
figured out that my pricingwasn't going to have to go up
that much at that point to beable to bring it in from Italy,
and for me it was a slam dunk.
I moved everything over, endedup partnering with three people
(04:56):
pretty early on as a partner,and they really supported me and
brought in some of the bestsellers I had.
Backpack behind me was like oneof the bestsellers for years,
and I was like one of the firstthat jumped on the sling trend.
So we have the Mama Bella sling, which is really extremely
popular there.
We've had it in like 10 colors,and so that was great and we're
(05:19):
doing all out of the house allout of the house.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So that just just out of curiosity, because I've had
a lot of I've known and workedwith and know several people
who've gone out on their own.
After you know quote unquoteday jobbing within the industry
and you know for as many yearsas you've done everything,
you're still, you know, at a dayjob.
You have other people to handthings off to, like who's going
to bring the goods in and who'sgoing to do the accounting and
(05:51):
who's going to do the clearance,and do I need an expediter?
Who's going to get them throughcustoms?
And do I need to have my goodsdelivered in a different way?
I can't.
Maybe I shouldn't do freight onboard FOB, maybe I should do
LDP, landed duties paid becauseI don't have a person to bring
them in.
How did you handle thosechallenges?
(06:13):
Because I'm sure there werethings that you were like, oh
damn, like okay, I've neverdealt with this side.
I knew it existed.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So actually, yeah, I mean that's the hard part.
The designing was easy, like Iknew that, like I could do that.
I mean I've been doing that for30 years.
Right, I know trends, I couldpick colors, I can do a tech
pack, I know I can figure outwhat the next thing is going to
be, tweak it, whatever.
And the hard part waseverything else and that was
scary and that was a lot oftalking to Google.
(06:41):
Me and Google were very goodfriends.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Oh, my God yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
ChatGPT can tell you whatever you need.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
But it's hard.
It's hard even to today,because even when I bring on
bigger right now we're in aworkshop with Macy's, we were on
QVC a month ago, we are onNorthJunecom, we sell to Shields
, we sell all over the countryto boutiques or on faircom.
All of these different systemsare different and they all have
(07:14):
their own set of like how to dothis and how to do that, and
what forms you need and how tosubmit it, and it's challenging.
It's challenging to learn thatand relearn it every time you
set up with a new retailer.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
You know and it's funny because I know the
workshop through Macy's, I'vehad a few designers go through
that and how Nordstromcom worksand I just had a conversation
about this this morning with aspecific trade show of how
independent designers handle andare set up for drop ship versus
shipping directly to boutiquesand how challenging it is to
(07:50):
pick a production number amountbecause drop ship you can never
guarantee.
So how have you handled that inorder to maintain going forward
?
That is the hardest thing ever?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it is.
And the best part of workingwith my factories in Italy is
that they take very smallquantities, so I don't have to
ship a lot all at once.
I could test and I could pivotpretty quickly.
So within three months I couldjust get a new set of goods in
so I could see like, okay, thisis working.
I need to reorder this quickand sometimes we're out of stock
(08:24):
.
I don't mind being out of stock, you know, for me it's.
You know, I'd rather be thatthan have so much goods I don't
know what to do with, where Ineed a big warehouse where I'm
storing like hundreds andthousands of dollars of goods.
So we do work very, very closeto season.
I kind of threw out everythingI knew in the industry when I
(08:47):
started working for myself,because I felt like there was so
much overdevelopment.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So much overdevelopment, so much
overdevelopment, so much it's so.
I feel like people do thatbecause they just want to prove
that they're productive.
I'm sorry, like yeah, it's sounnecessary.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I was like I'm never doing that again.
It's silly If you design a goodproduct, you recolor it and
it's a good product, so it's nota good product, and you move on
and then you know you have your.
You know you have your littleminis, you have your slings, you
have your tote, like you don'tneed five totes, so yeah, so we
work really close to season.
(09:24):
We drop new goods all the time.
We don't say say okay, this isour spring line, this is our
fall line.
We kind of just it just flows.
How far out do you developbefore delivery?
I mean probably a year, butit's, it doesn't mean that's
gonna, that will be what Ideliver.
Right, like we design, we tweak, we color, we pick colors and
(09:49):
by the time we actually go intoproduction, you know then we
decide what we're actually goingto buy.
Things change.
So again, we try to keep itreally tight to season so we can
make those changes really fastand also buy into what my
retailers may be buying at thetime.
If I don't want to buy, youknow hundreds of pieces on there
, buy 50 pieces, I buy 20 piecesand I just tack on to another
(10:11):
order.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right?
Is the goal, just out ofcuriosity, to be sold in store,
or are you content being com?
Because I assume with mostretail nowadays it's drop ship,
which is good and bad.
It's got its pluses and minuses, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
No, I'm in store.
I mean, I've been in stores.
I was in village for a littlebit.
I didn't love that.
You lose control a little bitand you don't know what's really
going on at those stores andhow you're getting displayed.
For me it was because ofanxiety.
You want to go speak it and youcan't.
You have nothing.
But we do ship to a lot ofboutiques.
(10:49):
I have a West Coast rep andthey sell to a lot of boutiques
on the West Coast.
We have Northeast people, so inthat respect, we are in store.
I'm happy to be online.
I do like to control it alittle bit.
Again, I don't think that likeI think a lot of people are fine
with buying online.
If they return, it's fine.
You know, that's the name ofthe game buying online.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
They return, it's fine.
You know that's the name of thegame.
You know it's so interestingbecause back in the day, you
know the crown jewel was gettingin store, but with that I mean
when my bags were in store amillion quadrillion.
You know, years ago like Iwould personally go to each
department store, make sure Igot there early.
(11:33):
I would have the education withthe floor staff.
Hopefully they were seasonedseasoned, not seasonal because
if you get the young ones thatare there in between for holiday
or for college, you get theones who are professional retail
people, because then they'lllisten.
And then having to workbackwards on, okay, what do I
(11:57):
bring to educate them?
I need to bring food.
I won't bring bagels, I'llbring muffins, because muffins
you don't need a top Like allthese little things that go into
your head, only to get there todo a meet and greet to find
that your product isn't even out.
And I've had that where I havegone into, you know, the guts of
a department store Actually itwas a Dillard's fun fact and
(12:21):
climbed through because my firstweek's numbers were zero and
they were about to drop me andI'm like, oh my God, I need to
fly here and it's so much.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
It's impossible to do it actually, and you're running
a whole business.
You can't be that person too.
Like again, there's so manyhats you can wear at one time
and you kind of have toprioritize.
What hat is that going to be?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And yes, have you done a lot with your boutiques
Like anything experiential?
Or because that I have foundwith a lot with your boutiques
like anything experiential?
Or because that I have foundwith a lot of designers now,
when they find that they have ahandful of boutiques that are
really strong, that they try todo extra with them.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Like, yeah, I did early on again, you know,
time-wise it's harder thesethings but yeah, yeah, early on,
I I was, I literally wasselling out a chunk of my car,
like I was at the boutique likeevery other week.
You know what do you need, whatdo we need, and that works.
But you know, and they lovethat.
You know the boutiques lovethat you can help them.
(13:24):
But now it's a little bitharder to have that time to do
that and so it does help.
I've been planning a trip tothe West Coast because I really
want to see my stores there.
I have such great stores there.
They're so supportive and theyhave amazing like boho chic
boutiques, especially in, likeyou know, northern California.
(13:46):
I, you know and I will getthere, it's just a matter of
having that time.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
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When you were designing yourline and again having this
experience within the licensingworld, you know the customer for
one brand is absolutely not thesame customer for another how
(15:42):
were you able to back into andreverse engineer who your
customer would be with yourdesigns?
Was it okay?
I've been designing these kindsof bags for so long.
I know these silhouettes arestrong.
I know these colors are strong.
I know I could put my own spinon it and then it will be much
better because it's my spin.
(16:03):
Or was it?
I'm going to completelyreinvent the wheel on something
I've always wanted to do butwasn't allowed or was
constrained.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that's a great question, Because I like started
with like very classic lookingbags with like interchangeable
straps.
It's actually a pretty coolconcept still to this day
because it was the metal wouldchange color.
It was cool, but I couldn'tresonate with anyone.
I didn't like, I couldn't getthe hook and I was like, oh, I'm
(16:34):
going to sell to millennials,I'm going to sell.
You know what I was thinking,and it's a lot of testing, I
think.
And then when I saw who was likereacting to me and my story, it
was people my age, you know, alittle bit older, you know, and,
honestly, people that had nokids at home, where the kids
were older, they had a littlebit more money because the bands
(16:55):
all got cheap.
And then when I started to showthe Italian line, it was like a
shift.
It was just like, oh my God,what is that?
I need that.
You know, it's one of thoselike I want that.
That, yeah, one of those like Iwant that there, you know, and
you know, just so beautiful, thewoven like and all the detail,
(17:18):
the two-tone, like I just wantedto, you know, like give you an
idea Like it's so beautiful andsmells good and it feels good,
and it just resonated, you know,and it's just a lot again.
A lot of trial and error, a lotof trial and error.
And now I kind of have her down, who she is.
You know she likes to travel.
(17:38):
She already has designer bagsin her closet.
She probably has a little bitof extra income.
She doesn't really care abouthaving a logo on the outside.
I don't logo anything on theoutside.
I don't believe in that.
I know it's like not good formy branding, but it's just the
(18:01):
way my brand is.
She is very casual.
She wants to wear this all daylong and to dinner and wherever.
So it takes time, but Idefinitely know her now.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, that definitely takes a minute to get to that
point, to understand who yourcustomer is and have a you know,
especially when you're startingout.
And then, as soon as you thinkyou've got it, you're like, oh
wait, maybe, maybe that's nother.
And I love that you you sharedthat you wanted to try and do
something innovative, becausethe one pitfall that most people
(18:29):
do is to try and do somethingtheoretically that no one else
has done or nothing you've seen,because most likely it was done
and it potentially didn't work.
Only because we have such ashort attention span as
consumers and if you need tostand there and do a dog and
pony show to explain it, thecost of doing business, the time
(18:53):
value of money, becomes veryunclear.
Because now you're having to belike, no, but look how cool
this is, and look, you can takeit on, and you can take it off,
yeah, yeah, it's too hard toexplain it is.
And then you're like I couldjust sell a bag without you know
here, look, here's a pretty bag, as opposed to me having to,
like you know, run out of breathwith every person that comes by
(19:15):
yeah, yeah, it's, it'sdefinitely, and that's also like
tricky like in your soul to belike I want to do something so
new that I could put my stamp onit that nobody else has done,
but at the end of the day, youjust want to sell nice bags that
make people happy.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, it's a bag.
At the end, you know, I thinkthe one thing I have that as
someone else maybe youngerwouldn't is that I've been in a
long time.
I don't get attached BecauseI've done so many things.
I know how the trends flow.
Things come in, things go out.
Like you can't just have thatdesign one bag and say this is
going to be my bag forever, thisis what I'm going to sell Like.
(19:51):
It's never going to work likethat.
It's always going to change.
It's always going to change andyou have to be able to pivot
and that's what I had to do.
Right From one country,literally, to another, one
leather to another, one completeaesthetic to another was that
hard to relaunch.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Like branding wise, like I put all my energy in, now
I have to go back and tell mycustomers wait, wait, it's
better, it's new and improved,it's from Italy, like was that
yes and no, because I was stillselling a very soft leather
product and I was always about,oh, buttery soft leather.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So that was still my DNA, right, it's still buttery
soft leather.
I was never doing a structuredbag.
Really.
It was always going to besomething that felt good on your
skin.
So I was still selling thataesthetic.
The boho vibe was definitelydifferent, yeah, and having that
like more casual look.
But again, you know it was slow.
I still had stock.
(20:49):
We did two lines for a longtime.
We had the Italian leather, wehad the classic leather, so it
slowly came in.
It wasn't a full done and startover, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I mean, I'm sure that was a relief, though, that you
didn't have to go from you knowzero to like again to start back
to back because it's sostressful.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, it wasn't like that.
It came in slowly and just kindof took over.
How did you?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
end up in Italy?
Was it, like you know, chinawasn't going to work out, or you
knew you had to phase out China?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I mean, I was thinking about it and then I
actually got contacted.
I get contacted by factoriesall the time on LinkedIn because
I have been in the business solong, yeah, right.
So, but this one stood out and Ithought, oh, wait a minute,
this is interesting, like sendme samples and let's talk and
(21:44):
made a trip and it was like, ohmy god and it's funny because
I've been trying to do this lookfor a very long time this, this
wash leather look.
And I remember I saw a bag in ashopping trip in London and I
was like what is that leather?
That's beautiful, like it wasthis.
Wow, I could never do it inChina, ever.
(22:09):
It just didn't exist thetechnology.
So wash leather is white leather.
Right, it's a bag made in whiteleather.
It's already made.
The entire bag goes into awashing machine and dyes like
denim, right, right, right,right, right, right, like a
garment dye, right.
So it's getting tumbled andrinsed and hangs to dry for like
(22:32):
days.
It also gets hand treated.
It's like we saw the seven stepprocess.
It's probably actually evenmore than seven steps, but it's
like you know, you go from onemachine to another after the
bag's already made, so you'repaying for all that too, on top
of just getting a bag made.
But that's what makes it lookso beautiful what they call
(22:52):
labor yeah.
And they're all family-runfactories.
They pass this stuff generationto generation.
It's been around for a longtime, right, and it's really
specific to Glamour.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, and it's really specific to Glamour.
God forbid something happensand you're out of luck.
You're like ugh.
But yeah, have you, as anindependent designer and a small
business, thought I need todiversify and make sure I've got
a backup Of?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
course, yeah, so there is actually more than one.
There's one that we mainly use,but there are more than one,
right?
So we do diversify.
And we actually are looking atUS factories too.
There's not many of them,unfortunately.
They just they don't have thesame capabilities to do what we
do overseas, so we are lookingat one that could maybe do some
(23:54):
very simpler style for us andmaybe some small other goods, um
, wallets and so on.
So, yeah, always diversifying.
Um, I work with a friend ofmine who's a jewelry designer.
We do like fabric bags out ofIndia, so always looking for new
and different.
So these are on my website.
This is just a fun little asideproject also got bought by
(24:17):
three people for a little bit.
So yeah, so yeah, we're alwayspivoting.
I'm also working on some sporthandbag straps.
So just different things alwaysgoing on in the back end.
You know, again, being inbusiness a long time, nothing
lasts forever, so you alwayshave to be looking three steps
ahead of where you're at today.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This has been so lovely getting to know you and
your brand and hearing yourstory, and I think you know
there have been so manyinteresting takeaways to this
conversation, from ensuring thatyou diversify your factories to
really putting the time in andI honestly, think the biggest
one is just don't get tooattached.
(25:08):
Think the biggest one is justdon't get too attached.
I have told more designers whohave referred to their bags and
their brand as their babies, andI've had to tell them they are
not your babies.
Babies are different, babiesyou need to take care of for
life.
They are yours for life.
This is a product.
It's meant to be replicated,it's meant to sell.
If it's not selling, you mustchange it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
That's it, that's it, because your goal is.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And if you're getting knocked off.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
That means you're doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Exactly and then move on or do it better.
I always say you must be thefastest, the first or the best.
So you got to pick a lane,that's it.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Or second.
It's always good to be secondtoo, anyway.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, but that makes you the best, because you're
doing a better version ofwhatever somebody else did.
Karen, how can we find you,follow you and learn more about
Balsa Nova bags?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, so we're on.
We actually have a website.
Balsa Nova, b-o-l-s-a-n-o-v-ameans new bag in Portuguese, so
Balsa Nova, handbags with an S.
I'm on Instagram.
Instagram is kind of like thebest place to see day-to-day
what's going on.
That's bolsa, underscore nova,underscore handbags, and on the
website you can have links toeverything pretty much of where
(26:15):
you can find us.
We're on Long Island.
We do have a small boutique inHewlett, which we have our
studio in which I'm sitting inright now, and we have our small
little warehouse.
So we do have a little bit of asquare foot space and then a
bigger warehouse we use inBrooklyn and that's it.
And anyone can reach out to meany young designers too.
If you ever want to reach outto me on LinkedIn, I'm on there
(26:37):
and I will answer any questions.
Thank you, karen Cardoso.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It was lovely meeting you.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Love meeting you too.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
So again, we try to keep it really tight to season
so we can make those changesreally fast and also buy into
what my retailers may be buyingat the time.
If I don't want to buy hundredsof pieces, I buy 50 pieces, I
buy 20 pieces and I just tack onto another order.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, EmilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert, and the handbag fairygodmother Emily Blumenthal,
handbag industry expert and thehandbag fairy godmother.
Each week, we uncover thestories behind the handbags we
love, from the iconic brands andtop designers to the creativity
, craftsmanship and culture thatdefine the handbag world.
Whether you're a designer,collector or simply passionate
(00:37):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all, to it
all.
Welcome, Karen Cardoso of BalsaNova Bags to Handbag Designer
101, the podcast.
Welcome, welcome.
(01:00):
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, like I was telling you,it's been a minute since I've
had an independent designer,which always brings me joy and
makes me happy because you knowmy people, if we just dive right
in.
You had said you had been inthe business for 30 years.
Yeah, Was it bags?
What was it like?
Let's just throw ourselves backin.
Yeah, so I?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I worked in New York City for 30 years for multiple
brands, always as kind of what Icall a ghost designer behind
the scenes for licensees or youknow, big companies that had a
lot of name brands.
I've worked on wallets,handbags, cosmetic bags, pretty
much any type of like leather ornon-leather accessory Slugs as
(01:38):
they call it.
Slugs right, that I meanliterally was the slug queen for
a long time.
Small letter goods, yeah, slugsfor people who don't know.
And you know, did it for a lotof different brands within
companies and then kind ofpivoted to handbags worked with
like designer brands likejessica simpson, franco sardo,
(01:59):
nicole miller, uh, bacchier, um,you just a lot of that after it
was sold.
Yeah, okay, after it sold, butMonica was still there at the
time.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Um so we would work together yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So it was a fun time.
But you know, around sevenyears ago I was like ready to
pivot.
A lot of things were going onin the industry and I just
really didn't want to like startover as a full-time designer
and ended up starting my ownbusiness from my house, doing
consulting work first, you know,because that's you don't have
to pay the bills.
So I did that for a long time.
I did a lot of consulting workfor friends in the industry who
(02:33):
needed whatever.
They needed a handbag, aplanogram, a sketch, you know, a
cad, anything and startedbuilding the brand, which is
Bolsonova.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So this is really great because you obviously knew
how to work with factories.
You knew what was needed, youknew tech packs, so forth, what
factory was like, what it tookto develop a line, to develop a
collection, especially since,working on licensed brands,
you're under very specificconstraints as to what the
(03:08):
expectation is, because itobviously beyond needing to
match the DNA of the brandhypothetically Jessica Simpson,
where the retail or the fashionmight be one place, the handbags
will be someplace else, becauseobviously, with licensing, who
actually makes it goes to thebrand that already has it set up
, not so much the people who ownthe brand name.
(03:29):
Just an overview of licensing.
So was it always in the back ofyour mind like one day I'll do
my own thing, or was it?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
okay, I was.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know this is what I want to do, and it's a day
job and I'm good with that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
You know it was.
I always wanted to do it, asanyone.
It's a scary proposition, rightJust to like drop everything.
You know you make a good salary, you have a great career just
to walk away from that is scary.
To do something on your own soand we were at a point my
husband also supporting me atthe time, you know, through this
whole transition we were at apoint where I could do it and I
had factories that were willingto work with me at the time of
originally in China, becausethat's that was my where I was
(04:11):
working at the time in ratherbeautiful leather factories,
high end leather factories thatdo a lot of designer stuff, and
they were great.
They got me in business.
We did two lines with them andthen the tariff started going up
the first round and realizedthat this was seven years ago.
Yes, so right before thepandemic, right?
(04:34):
Wow, beautiful wash weatherthat I fell in love with and
figured out that my pricingwasn't going to have to go up
that much at that point to beable to bring it in from Italy,
and for me it was a slam dunk.
I moved everything over, endedup partnering with three people
(04:56):
pretty early on as a partner,and they really supported me and
brought in some of the bestsellers I had.
Backpack behind me was like oneof the bestsellers for years,
and I was like one of the firstthat jumped on the sling trend.
So we have the Mama Bella sling, which is really extremely
popular there.
We've had it in like 10 colors,and so that was great and we're
(05:19):
doing all out of the house allout of the house.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So that just just out of curiosity, because I've had
a lot of I've known and workedwith and know several people
who've gone out on their own.
After you know quote unquoteday jobbing within the industry
and you know for as many yearsas you've done everything,
you're still, you know, at a dayjob.
You have other people to handthings off to, like who's going
to bring the goods in and who'sgoing to do the accounting and
(05:51):
who's going to do the clearance,and do I need an expediter?
Who's going to get them throughcustoms?
And do I need to have my goodsdelivered in a different way?
I can't.
Maybe I shouldn't do freight onboard FOB, maybe I should do
LDP, landed duties paid becauseI don't have a person to bring
them in.
How did you handle thosechallenges?
(06:13):
Because I'm sure there werethings that you were like, oh
damn, like okay, I've neverdealt with this side.
I knew it existed.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So actually, yeah, I mean that's the hard part.
The designing was easy, like Iknew that, like I could do that.
I mean I've been doing that for30 years.
Right, I know trends, I couldpick colors, I can do a tech
pack, I know I can figure outwhat the next thing is going to
be, tweak it, whatever.
And the hard part waseverything else and that was
scary and that was a lot oftalking to Google.
(06:41):
Me and Google were very goodfriends.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Oh, my God yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
ChatGPT can tell you whatever you need.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
But it's hard.
It's hard even to today,because even when I bring on
bigger right now we're in aworkshop with Macy's, we were on
QVC a month ago, we are onNorthJunecom, we sell to Shields
, we sell all over the countryto boutiques or on faircom.
All of these different systemsare different and they all have
(07:14):
their own set of like how to dothis and how to do that, and
what forms you need and how tosubmit it, and it's challenging.
It's challenging to learn thatand relearn it every time you
set up with a new retailer.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
You know and it's funny because I know the
workshop through Macy's, I'vehad a few designers go through
that and how Nordstromcom worksand I just had a conversation
about this this morning with aspecific trade show of how
independent designers handle andare set up for drop ship versus
shipping directly to boutiquesand how challenging it is to
(07:50):
pick a production number amountbecause drop ship you can never
guarantee.
So how have you handled that inorder to maintain going forward
?
That is the hardest thing ever?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it is.
And the best part of workingwith my factories in Italy is
that they take very smallquantities, so I don't have to
ship a lot all at once.
I could test and I could pivotpretty quickly.
So within three months I couldjust get a new set of goods in
so I could see like, okay, thisis working.
I need to reorder this quickand sometimes we're out of stock
(08:24):
.
I don't mind being out of stock, you know, for me it's.
You know, I'd rather be thatthan have so much goods I don't
know what to do with, where Ineed a big warehouse where I'm
storing like hundreds andthousands of dollars of goods.
So we do work very, very closeto season.
I kind of threw out everythingI knew in the industry when I
(08:47):
started working for myself,because I felt like there was so
much overdevelopment.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So much overdevelopment, so much
overdevelopment, so much it's so.
I feel like people do thatbecause they just want to prove
that they're productive.
I'm sorry, like yeah, it's sounnecessary.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I was like I'm never doing that again.
It's silly If you design a goodproduct, you recolor it and
it's a good product, so it's nota good product, and you move on
and then you know you have your.
You know you have your littleminis, you have your slings, you
have your tote, like you don'tneed five totes, so yeah, so we
work really close to season.
(09:24):
We drop new goods all the time.
We don't say say okay, this isour spring line, this is our
fall line.
We kind of just it just flows.
How far out do you developbefore delivery?
I mean probably a year, butit's, it doesn't mean that's
gonna, that will be what Ideliver.
Right, like we design, we tweak, we color, we pick colors and
(09:49):
by the time we actually go intoproduction, you know then we
decide what we're actually goingto buy.
Things change.
So again, we try to keep itreally tight to season so we can
make those changes really fastand also buy into what my
retailers may be buying at thetime.
If I don't want to buy, youknow hundreds of pieces on there
, buy 50 pieces, I buy 20 piecesand I just tack on to another
(10:11):
order.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right?
Is the goal, just out ofcuriosity, to be sold in store,
or are you content being com?
Because I assume with mostretail nowadays it's drop ship,
which is good and bad.
It's got its pluses and minuses, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
No, I'm in store.
I mean, I've been in stores.
I was in village for a littlebit.
I didn't love that.
You lose control a little bitand you don't know what's really
going on at those stores andhow you're getting displayed.
For me it was because ofanxiety.
You want to go speak it and youcan't.
You have nothing.
But we do ship to a lot ofboutiques.
(10:49):
I have a West Coast rep andthey sell to a lot of boutiques
on the West Coast.
We have Northeast people, so inthat respect, we are in store.
I'm happy to be online.
I do like to control it alittle bit.
Again, I don't think that likeI think a lot of people are fine
with buying online.
If they return, it's fine.
You know, that's the name ofthe game buying online.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
They return, it's fine.
You know that's the name of thegame.
You know it's so interestingbecause back in the day, you
know the crown jewel was gettingin store, but with that I mean
when my bags were in store amillion quadrillion.
You know, years ago like Iwould personally go to each
department store, make sure Igot there early.
(11:33):
I would have the education withthe floor staff.
Hopefully they were seasonedseasoned, not seasonal because
if you get the young ones thatare there in between for holiday
or for college, you get theones who are professional retail
people, because then they'lllisten.
And then having to workbackwards on, okay, what do I
(11:57):
bring to educate them?
I need to bring food.
I won't bring bagels, I'llbring muffins, because muffins
you don't need a top Like allthese little things that go into
your head, only to get there todo a meet and greet to find
that your product isn't even out.
And I've had that where I havegone into, you know, the guts of
a department store Actually itwas a Dillard's fun fact and
(12:21):
climbed through because my firstweek's numbers were zero and
they were about to drop me andI'm like, oh my God, I need to
fly here and it's so much.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
It's impossible to do it actually, and you're running
a whole business.
You can't be that person too.
Like again, there's so manyhats you can wear at one time
and you kind of have toprioritize.
What hat is that going to be?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And yes, have you done a lot with your boutiques
Like anything experiential?
Or because that I have foundwith a lot with your boutiques
like anything experiential?
Or because that I have foundwith a lot of designers now,
when they find that they have ahandful of boutiques that are
really strong, that they try todo extra with them.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Like, yeah, I did early on again, you know,
time-wise it's harder thesethings but yeah, yeah, early on,
I I was, I literally wasselling out a chunk of my car,
like I was at the boutique likeevery other week.
You know what do you need, whatdo we need, and that works.
But you know, and they lovethat.
You know the boutiques lovethat you can help them.
(13:24):
But now it's a little bitharder to have that time to do
that and so it does help.
I've been planning a trip tothe West Coast because I really
want to see my stores there.
I have such great stores there.
They're so supportive and theyhave amazing like boho chic
boutiques, especially in, likeyou know, northern California.
(13:46):
I, you know and I will getthere, it's just a matter of
having that time.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
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When you were designing yourline and again having this
experience within the licensingworld, you know the customer for
one brand is absolutely not thesame customer for another how
(15:42):
were you able to back into andreverse engineer who your
customer would be with yourdesigns?
Was it okay?
I've been designing these kindsof bags for so long.
I know these silhouettes arestrong.
I know these colors are strong.
I know I could put my own spinon it and then it will be much
better because it's my spin.
(16:03):
Or was it?
I'm going to completelyreinvent the wheel on something
I've always wanted to do butwasn't allowed or was
constrained.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that's a great question, Because I like started
with like very classic lookingbags with like interchangeable
straps.
It's actually a pretty coolconcept still to this day
because it was the metal wouldchange color.
It was cool, but I couldn'tresonate with anyone.
I didn't like, I couldn't getthe hook and I was like, oh, I'm
(16:34):
going to sell to millennials,I'm going to sell.
You know what I was thinking,and it's a lot of testing, I
think.
And then when I saw who was likereacting to me and my story, it
was people my age, you know, alittle bit older, you know, and,
honestly, people that had nokids at home, where the kids
were older, they had a littlebit more money because the bands
(16:55):
all got cheap.
And then when I started to showthe Italian line, it was like a
shift.
It was just like, oh my God,what is that?
I need that.
You know, it's one of thoselike I want that.
That, yeah, one of those like Iwant that there, you know, and
you know, just so beautiful, thewoven like and all the detail,
(17:18):
the two-tone, like I just wantedto, you know, like give you an
idea Like it's so beautiful andsmells good and it feels good,
and it just resonated, you know,and it's just a lot again.
A lot of trial and error, a lotof trial and error.
And now I kind of have her down, who she is.
You know she likes to travel.
(17:38):
She already has designer bagsin her closet.
She probably has a little bitof extra income.
She doesn't really care abouthaving a logo on the outside.
I don't logo anything on theoutside.
I don't believe in that.
I know it's like not good formy branding, but it's just the
(18:01):
way my brand is.
She is very casual.
She wants to wear this all daylong and to dinner and wherever.
So it takes time, but Idefinitely know her now.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, that definitely takes a minute to get to that
point, to understand who yourcustomer is and have a you know,
especially when you're startingout.
And then, as soon as you thinkyou've got it, you're like, oh
wait, maybe, maybe that's nother.
And I love that you you sharedthat you wanted to try and do
something innovative, becausethe one pitfall that most people
(18:29):
do is to try and do somethingtheoretically that no one else
has done or nothing you've seen,because most likely it was done
and it potentially didn't work.
Only because we have such ashort attention span as
consumers and if you need tostand there and do a dog and
pony show to explain it, thecost of doing business, the time
(18:53):
value of money, becomes veryunclear.
Because now you're having to belike, no, but look how cool
this is, and look, you can takeit on, and you can take it off,
yeah, yeah, it's too hard toexplain it is.
And then you're like I couldjust sell a bag without you know
here, look, here's a pretty bag, as opposed to me having to,
like you know, run out of breathwith every person that comes by
(19:15):
yeah, yeah, it's, it'sdefinitely, and that's also like
tricky like in your soul to belike I want to do something so
new that I could put my stamp onit that nobody else has done,
but at the end of the day, youjust want to sell nice bags that
make people happy.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, it's a bag.
At the end, you know, I thinkthe one thing I have that as
someone else maybe youngerwouldn't is that I've been in a
long time.
I don't get attached BecauseI've done so many things.
I know how the trends flow.
Things come in, things go out.
Like you can't just have thatdesign one bag and say this is
going to be my bag forever, thisis what I'm going to sell Like.
(19:51):
It's never going to work likethat.
It's always going to change.
It's always going to change andyou have to be able to pivot
and that's what I had to do.
Right From one country,literally, to another, one
leather to another, one completeaesthetic to another was that
hard to relaunch.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Like branding wise, like I put all my energy in, now
I have to go back and tell mycustomers wait, wait, it's
better, it's new and improved,it's from Italy, like was that
yes and no, because I was stillselling a very soft leather
product and I was always about,oh, buttery soft leather.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So that was still my DNA, right, it's still buttery
soft leather.
I was never doing a structuredbag.
Really.
It was always going to besomething that felt good on your
skin.
So I was still selling thataesthetic.
The boho vibe was definitelydifferent, yeah, and having that
like more casual look.
But again, you know it was slow.
I still had stock.
(20:49):
We did two lines for a longtime.
We had the Italian leather, wehad the classic leather, so it
slowly came in.
It wasn't a full done and startover, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I mean, I'm sure that was a relief, though, that you
didn't have to go from you knowzero to like again to start back
to back because it's sostressful.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, it wasn't like that.
It came in slowly and just kindof took over.
How did you?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
end up in Italy?
Was it, like you know, chinawasn't going to work out, or you
knew you had to phase out China?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I mean, I was thinking about it and then I
actually got contacted.
I get contacted by factoriesall the time on LinkedIn because
I have been in the business solong, yeah, right.
So, but this one stood out and Ithought, oh, wait a minute,
this is interesting, like sendme samples and let's talk and
(21:44):
made a trip and it was like, ohmy god and it's funny because
I've been trying to do this lookfor a very long time this, this
wash leather look.
And I remember I saw a bag in ashopping trip in London and I
was like what is that leather?
That's beautiful, like it wasthis.
Wow, I could never do it inChina, ever.
(22:09):
It just didn't exist thetechnology.
So wash leather is white leather.
Right, it's a bag made in whiteleather.
It's already made.
The entire bag goes into awashing machine and dyes like
denim, right, right, right,right, right, right, like a
garment dye, right.
So it's getting tumbled andrinsed and hangs to dry for like
(22:32):
days.
It also gets hand treated.
It's like we saw the seven stepprocess.
It's probably actually evenmore than seven steps, but it's
like you know, you go from onemachine to another after the
bag's already made, so you'repaying for all that too, on top
of just getting a bag made.
But that's what makes it lookso beautiful what they call
(22:52):
labor yeah.
And they're all family-runfactories.
They pass this stuff generationto generation.
It's been around for a longtime, right, and it's really
specific to Glamour.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right, and it's really specific to Glamour.
God forbid something happensand you're out of luck.
You're like ugh.
But yeah, have you, as anindependent designer and a small
business, thought I need todiversify and make sure I've got
a backup Of?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
course, yeah, so there is actually more than one.
There's one that we mainly use,but there are more than one,
right?
So we do diversify.
And we actually are looking atUS factories too.
There's not many of them,unfortunately.
They just they don't have thesame capabilities to do what we
do overseas, so we are lookingat one that could maybe do some
(23:54):
very simpler style for us andmaybe some small other goods, um
, wallets and so on.
So, yeah, always diversifying.
Um, I work with a friend ofmine who's a jewelry designer.
We do like fabric bags out ofIndia, so always looking for new
and different.
So these are on my website.
This is just a fun little asideproject also got bought by
(24:17):
three people for a little bit.
So yeah, so yeah, we're alwayspivoting.
I'm also working on some sporthandbag straps.
So just different things alwaysgoing on in the back end.
You know, again, being inbusiness a long time, nothing
lasts forever, so you alwayshave to be looking three steps
ahead of where you're at today.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
This has been so lovely getting to know you and
your brand and hearing yourstory, and I think you know
there have been so manyinteresting takeaways to this
conversation, from ensuring thatyou diversify your factories to
really putting the time in andI honestly, think the biggest
one is just don't get tooattached.
(25:08):
Think the biggest one is justdon't get too attached.
I have told more designers whohave referred to their bags and
their brand as their babies, andI've had to tell them they are
not your babies.
Babies are different, babiesyou need to take care of for
life.
They are yours for life.
This is a product.
It's meant to be replicated,it's meant to sell.
If it's not selling, you mustchange it.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
That's it, that's it, because your goal is.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And if you're getting knocked off.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
That means you're doing the right thing.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Exactly and then move on or do it better.
I always say you must be thefastest, the first or the best.
So you got to pick a lane,that's it.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Or second.
It's always good to be secondtoo, anyway.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, but that makes you the best, because you're
doing a better version ofwhatever somebody else did.
Karen, how can we find you,follow you and learn more about
Balsa Nova bags?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, so we're on.
We actually have a website.
Balsa Nova, b-o-l-s-a-n-o-v-ameans new bag in Portuguese, so
Balsa Nova, handbags with an S.
I'm on Instagram.
Instagram is kind of like thebest place to see day-to-day
what's going on.
That's bolsa, underscore nova,underscore handbags, and on the
website you can have links toeverything pretty much of where
(26:15):
you can find us.
We're on Long Island.
We do have a small boutique inHewlett, which we have our
studio in which I'm sitting inright now, and we have our small
little warehouse.
So we do have a little bit of asquare foot space and then a
bigger warehouse we use inBrooklyn and that's it.
And anyone can reach out to meany young designers too.
If you ever want to reach outto me on LinkedIn, I'm on there
(26:37):
and I will answer any questions.
Thank you, karen Cardoso.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It was lovely meeting you.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Love meeting you too.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single
platform at Handbag Designer.
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
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