Join Tom Glazer and Alexia Nelson, the leadership behind Graphic Image and GiGi New York, as they reveal how they transformed a specialized bookbinding company into a thriving luxury handbag brand—all while proudly keeping production 100% American. 🇺🇸💼
With smart pivots during the 2009 recession and a bold embrace of modern retail strategies like drop-shipping, Tom and Alexia share how they built a resilient brand that blends old-world craftsmanship with new-age flexibility. 📈👜
💡 Key Takeaways:
🔹 Pivoting Under Pressure: How GiGi New York turned crisis into major opportunity during the recession.
🔹 Owning Production: Why in-house manufacturing gives them an edge in drop-shipping, inventory control, and rapid design testing.
🔹 Zero-Waste Innovation: How repurposing leather scraps fuels sustainability—and profitability.
Whether you’re a designer, entrepreneur, or fashion enthusiast, this episode is packed with practical lessons on building a future-proof brand that stays true to its roots. 🎧
🎧 Listen now! #HandbagDesigner101 #AmericanMade #SustainableFashion #LuxuryHandbags #BrandBuilding
Our Guests: Tom Glazer and Alexia Nelson are the dynamic forces behind Graphic Image and GiGi New York, leading the charge to preserve American craftsmanship while evolving with today's fast-paced retail world.
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.
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):
We run the business and there's never a question
from season to season.
Servers have no incentive notto carry you as long as you're
selling Right.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And we always know what's selling.
That's also the key.
I have full control of whichbags customers are buying.
I can you know.
I monitor the websites and cansee what they're buying, so I
know what to remake and what notto.
If they're outright buying it,you have no.
The control is gone.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, emilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
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
(00:45):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, tom Glazer and AlexiaNelson of Graphic Image to
Handbag Designer 101, thepodcast.
Welcome, guys, welcome, thankyou.
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, let's just pull the curtain and find out who Oz
is behind Graphic Image.
What is the story of the namehaving Graphic Image being a
handbag brand and it's actuallyGigi New York, but it isn't Talk
to me about what that is.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So Graphic Image is the original company parent
company that was started in 1977.
And my father used the nameGraphic Image because he was a
graphic artist for 10 yearsbefore he intended to start his
own business.
So there's a long story there,but we'll just fast forward for
now to where Gigi came about.
The recession in 2009 was toughfor everybody and we were
(01:48):
determined to come out of itwith a business that stopped
going out of business, and bythat I mean our main graphic
image business was diaries,agendas, which we were afraid.
Even though they are runningstrong.
We were afraid that that wouldend.
We watched our main customerdepartment stores in the 80s all
go out of business.
There were so many more that weused to work with them and we
(02:08):
said to ourselves in 2009, let'smake a tote.
We were actually already makingtotes for Victoria's Secret, of
all companies.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Private label.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, we were hired to develop their Airford program
.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And you know, we were told that we'd be involved
until they didn't need usanymore, and that turned out to
be better.
Anyway, we took the tote bagsthat we had been making for them
.
We made one, we put them in theNew York gift show, because
that was the graphic imagemarket.
Today it's called New York Now,or something like that,
whatever.
We sold like 350 of them and wesaid, wow, there's a business
(02:47):
here.
So that was the beginning.
As far as the name is concerned, there's really two of them.
One would be Graphic Image 2,g-i-g-i.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Okay, look at that, because Gigi became a very chic
name and I thought, oh, someoneon trend, look at that.
Okay that's.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's special.
So go ahead.
It's another part of the nameand I had an important Gigi in
my family, not her name.
What's a Gigi great grandmother?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
ah, look at that.
So the double entendre was hadabsolutely nothing to do with an
actual name Gigi.
Oh my God, that is epic and PS.
Just a quick shout out.
The banging we hear in thebackground is what is that?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Our factory is right outside the door where we're
making our handbags.
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Has it always been like that, when you know, as you
had said before, we startedrecording and I don't know if
this aligned with the recessionbut the fact that your
predominant production or all ofyour production is done locally
, like you know, peek in and youcan watch it being made like
(04:05):
that, or was one supposed tofund the other?
And then it was like, screwthat, we're ahead of schedule
Because, as we all know, pricingis kind of key.
And how do you do that withmargins to try and keep
something affordable, especiallywhen you're working with
leather?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Well, where do I begin?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We got time, tom, we got time.
You've got a secret sauce thatI think people should know about
.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
We began as bookbinders and nobody had ever
really put a high-end fashionleather on a book in any great
degree, and there were parts ofbeing in bookbinding that we had
to do ourselves because wecouldn't contract it on the
outside.
We could contract printing andsuch, but eventually we got into
making all the leather coversand we established really
(04:49):
premier accounts right from thestart Barney's, bergdorf,
goodman, neiman's, tiffany.
That leads to making books forthem and having a lot of
leftover material.
It's called the scrap.
We need to learn to make thingswith that for purposes of
costing.
So it began with book covers,went on to small leather goods
(05:09):
and then over time now we'retalking 40 years we graduated
into making more and morechallenging products.
So now here we are, 2011, andGigi's had a very successful
handbag launch One bag, one tote.
Where do we go from here?
The production on our own.
A lot of it had to do withhandbag launch One bag, one tote
.
Where do we go from here?
The production on our own.
A lot of it had to do withTiffany, too.
(05:29):
For 30 years we were the onlyvendor that made any Tiffany
product and it had to be madehere in the States.
And although we still work.
Now that Louis Vuitton's there,it's in a very, very different
capacity.
We're not running the show byany means anymore, but we needed
to learn to educate ourselveson how to do it.
The Victoria's Secret thing waskind of relevant, because they
(05:53):
wanted huge numbers of productsintroduced on very short order
and although we had to useoverseas for them, because of
the price point, the window ofmaking the product was so short,
we had to do all the samplingand development here.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
What an education that was.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I can't even imagine.
You can't imagine.
So we found a way to be able tosurvive making product here.
I'm not a China basher.
We have a fantastic plant inChina that we can't use anymore
because of what they cost.
I even go as far to say that aswe were learning to make bags,
they helped teach us about whatwe did and what was important,
and it was a really, reallywonderful experience.
(06:34):
But today it's all 100% here,whether it's the books or the
business card cases and such,all the way to the handbags, and
I think it'd be very difficultto make an inexpensive product
here and not to say that we'revery expensive.
But you need to.
I think you kind of need to bein luxury to afford to be able
to sell into the American market.
(06:54):
And we chose a price point forour handbags that was elevated.
I believe that most peoplewould see them as a step above
the mass produced bags in theUnited States, but we were down
below the thousand dollar bagscoming out of Europe, so we're
probably in our own niche.
There's some other companiesperhaps that we share that with,
but we've found a way to makeit work and it's just out of
(07:18):
what the invention is somethingof necessity or whatever.
We have great vendors fortanneries.
They help a lot too, ensuringthat the product is very, very
relevant.
And I guess, like I said, it's40 years of.
I could never do this overnight, but step by step, by step you
(07:48):
know, step by step by step.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So can I ask you though, because totes are and
I'm not saying this isn't highlabor, but to make a tote is
probably the lowest laborhandbag that one could do.
So I think you know it wasfortuitous that Victoria's
Secret had asked you to dosomething like that.
But to expand the labor ofcreating something new beyond
that was that that must havebeen something hard to come to
(08:12):
terms with, price point wise,because the cost, the retail
cost of journals and diaries andso forth, is significantly less
to the customer than a handbagthat is.
You know you said it's below athousand, or what would the
price point range be?
And you know you've been aroundas long as Rebecca Minkoff, who
(08:34):
famously made her bags, took itdown to I think it was $4.95
from $5.95 or $3.95 from $4.95.
She was the famous one whobrought everybody's price points
down purely because she did itand had all the face time.
So how were you able to grapplewith that and saying, okay, if
we're going to expand on thiscategory, how do we not alienate
(08:57):
our current customer, or do wehave to find a brand new
customer for this, because theymight not be the same people?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, we were fortunate.
We happened to have what attimes in our lives has been a
cash cow and it's called graphicimage.
So it allowed us to be veryexperimental with Gigi and prior
to COVID, we took on contractwork.
We had 50 people in thedepartment and it was very hard
(09:25):
to make money there.
We did the coterie, the tradeshows and we catered to the
small store audiences.
And we made kind of a switchafter COVID which was to really
focus on three accounts Well,mainly Saxon, neiman, lucky us
today, right and now Nordstromas well, and the department is
(09:48):
more like now.
It's more like 12 to 15 peopleand we have the luxury of doing
small runs and really, reallycontrolling our costs.
They're probably and we'vealready getting the interest
because of what's going onpolitically in the world.
There probably are some verylarger opportunities out there
which I hope we can resistBecause it's very civilized
(10:10):
right now and we can reallyfocus.
Like for Neiman's last year wedid six bags that we didn't have
to sell to anybody else.
One other big customer I left.
That was our website.
And it's graphic images having agreat run right now.
What they're doing is westarted making deluxe leather
(10:33):
editions of popular books.
Wow, and this is just having.
It's a giving treat with kids'books, it's all you know.
It's having a great moment Forthose who are watching.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I'm sorry to interrupt.
Make sure you turn into theYouTube version of this just
purely to see what Tom just heldup.
It's super cool.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, no, I just wanted to jump into the handbag
portion because, on the floor,what I found, too that has
helped us with our costs, iswe've really retained the
highest skilled workers outthere and we've kind of
reinvented bags that we startedoff with.
So some of our bags that cameout in 2012, we've used those
core shapes to kind of reinventthem today and make them a
(11:16):
little bit more intricate, withdifferent handles or different
pockets, interiors.
So the workers have reallybecome quite good at making and
skilled at these certainsilhouettes that they've, you
know, gotten faster and morecost efficient for us, and I
work really closely with them tomake sure that our you know
(11:36):
costing is in mind especially.
You know, we changeconstructions but we really
start with the same base.
I mean, we just introduced anew bucket bag that originally
came out in 2016.
It looks like a completely newbag.
So we try to, you know, keepthose main bags and then
reinvent them a little bit.
(11:57):
So that way people are used tomaking them and have made them
in the past, cause a lot of ouryou know workers who are making
the bags have been here for 10plus years.
I mean, they've been here morethan that 20 years.
So how?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
do you deal with sourcing?
The leather, though?
Are the tannery, the tanneries,domestic, I mean being Garmento
offspring forever.
Anyone who's listened.
I've spoken about this.
My dad was a converter and mymemory was him going down south,
you know, going to the mills.
I remember him going to Florida, I remember where Coach used to
(12:31):
make bags, all of those places,Like I know.
One time a factory couldn't payhim so he came home with cowboy
boots, Like you know the crazythings, but you know how,
considering the current tariffsituation and it's an
interesting game of politicalchicken that's going on right
(12:51):
now I believe it can't lastforever.
You know, at some point thingshave to change and go back and
revert.
That's just the nature and thecycle of life and clearly you
guys have a leg up for whatyou've created and I'm sure it's
hotter than ever.
But how do you deal withsourcing, with that matter?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
If you don't mind me asking no, no, it's fine.
I consider our leather sourcingto be one of the premier
strengths of the company andit's because we've been buying
elevated leathers since 1990.
And we got to really know allthe Italian and French tanneries
and made friendships by them.
It's also not hard to know whatare the top leathers coming out
(13:42):
when you're buying from thesame tannery Right.
Our main tannery is in France,Tannery Danone.
They were purchased by Hermesfive years ago.
Most of the large Europeanbrands have bought up different
tanneries.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Did that make it difficult for you?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
No, it made it difficult for the brands that
they kicked out of the tannery,but we were included.
It's a real asset to have awindow into what the best brands
are making are using forleathers and such Colors.
We're surprised at how oftenAlexi comes up with a palette
(14:20):
and we go into the tannery andthey're making the same colors.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I do my research.
He's on sound.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yep, the other big advantage.
Have you heard of Linea Pell?
Of course, okay.
So you go to Linea Pell and youdo your homework and you work
for three days, you know ninetill six o'clock, the whole day,
and you come away with likegreat stuff.
We have more things here topull on than we can do in one
season.
And we go not, we don't gotwice a year, but we don't miss
(14:50):
more than two shows consecutive.
We'll go back in the fall, andit's basically if you're in the
leather world, there's nothingyou can't find there.
And for those who don't know,Linea Palais is it's in Milan,
used to be in Bologna, and it'sa trade show for all the
tanneries all the hardwarepeople includes the synthetic
(15:12):
people, a lot of the fabric, youknow.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
All components.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, I mean I'm trying to think of anything that
you would not, you couldn't buythere, that you make a leather,
everything is there.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And this is the same show that's in New York, or a
different one.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, it is.
New York is a much smallerscale.
So, you won't see, I mean it'slike a quarter, no no, no, it's
1%.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's true, it's over there, but it does
have a lot of pre-made tanneries.
No, it's.
You know, given the quality ofwhat New York pulls in, we
always go.
It's very, but it becomes moreof a meeting place than you know
.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Repicking it's social hour.
It's social hour, it's verysocial yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's hard to get down an aisle in less than two hours
.
Oh my God.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Has any of this taught you that, especially
post-COVID, that you need tohedge your bets and make sure
that you have another tannery asa backup, purely because you
know if you're working with thebest people and they're being
acquired?
There's always a chance whereyou might get a phone call
saying, hey guys, so sorry, wecan't work with you anymore.
(16:16):
Because that, I think, is whata lot of people are dealing with
right now, purely because ofthe tariff situation, saying, oh
crap, like what are we going todo?
Do we ship from China and Chinato Europe and then Europe back?
Like there's an extra layer toput on?
Like I know dealing with a lotof manufacturing, specifically
(16:36):
that I am right now with theMiddle East.
They're not having any issues.
Go in China and ship directlyto the Middle East, it's super
easy.
So how do you grapple with allthat?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, one thing to realize is that, with all the
labor here, the 10% increase inthe cost of our leather probably
translates to no more than a 2%to 3% increase in the cost of
the end product.
So it's absorbable.
And there's another thing whichI didn't mention before, and
these tanneries I don't want toshare with you because they come
(17:08):
from France and Italy.
We have great, great contactsand tanneries in various
continents around the world andthe leather world in general.
In the last 20 or 30 years hasthe expensive leathers have
become more expensive and thebasic leathers have become less
(17:30):
expensive, right, and tanneriesthat can really churn out good
quality leather.
And you've got to be careful Ifyou're going to buy leather in
Brazil.
There's certain types ofleather they make very well.
Don't try to buy a smooth pieceof calfskin there because it's
going to be full of insect bites, right, right.
So you know, as you get to know, what you can buy and wear.
(17:52):
Like.
India is the home of goatskin,all right, there's so many
goatskin vendors.
You can buy there Beautifulgoatskins, and I understand the
vulnerability you described.
But fortunately, knock on woodfor now we're okay.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Right, right, right right.
It's so interesting, especiallywith, like what you said about
India versus Brazil.
I know there's a lot going onin one little spot in Spain
where everybody's going to rightnow for leather and, in some
cases, production.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I know there's this one one city and they're less
closely.
Spain is fantastic.
Yeah, yeah, it really is.
There's another way of buyingleather, too, and not that I
like advertising this.
But everybody has odd lots,yeah, and we buy a lot of
leather that is like $8, $9 afoot for half that because it's
(18:48):
a leftover color or a leftover.
This way, you're not givinganyone quality.
I couldn't buy some of theseodd lots and send it to another
factory, but because I had ithere.
If it's not working for ahandbag, I'm going to make a
passport case out of it orsomething like that.
But buying that way, that is anelement of our buying and it
(19:08):
pays off.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Go ahead.
I was just going to say to jumpinto this and back to the
original costing conversation isbecause we do have graphic
image here.
We have so many smallaccessories that we're able to
cut all the scrap leather out of, to save costs on everything
and able to sell it that way,which is huge, so I could be
cutting handbags.
We have a pen.
We can make you know leatherwrapped pens, luggage tags, pap
(19:33):
sport cases, all these reallysmall accessories with all the
scraps.
So we're using the entire skinwhich we have the luxury here
because we have both brands.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, everything we could possibly cut.
We cut these little patternsout to wrap pens, we send it
over to Taiwan and they do itfor us.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
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(21:24):
So that is a really interestingquestion topic that you bring up
about no wastage.
Because number one you guyshave tackled and I think are 10
steps ahead of everybody,because sustainability obviously
is such a hot topic.
Yada yada, leather isn'tsustainable.
You and I all know that it isbecause, especially if you're
(21:47):
not wasting it, but this idea ofno wastage and being so on top
of that you're never concernedabout.
Okay, we're creating pen casesor pen caps.
Are you ever worried, like it'sgreat, we're not wasting this
leather, but who's going to buyit?
Or you know you'll always havea customer, because that's just
(22:07):
as costly of creating a productthat you don't know who you're
going to sell it to.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, most of these products are already on the
graphic image side because wehave the two brands in house, so
we have a whole graphic imageline, as Tom was saying earlier.
That's, you know, bookbinding.
It started as bookbinding butwe have the leather wrapped
books, but we also have atremendous amount of accessories
.
So all those leathers, nomatter what, can be put into
those products and we can kindof create, you know, new colors,
(22:35):
but they're all already there.
We have a separate graphicimage website that we can.
You know.
I know, when I'm creating ahandbag and I know the leathers
and colors we could, I we buy.
You know, sometimes similarcolors to be like this could
easily go into a graphic imageproduct, so we're saving all the
leather for it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Was there any concern about that business?
Especially with the rise ofphones and you know, the watch
business, the luxury watchbusiness, has skyrocketed.
Now who's wearing a watch?
People who want to be seenwearing a watch because it means
something Other than that noone is going to wear a watch,
(23:17):
like it's status-related.
Was that any concern with theevolution of tech?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well again, where's the period Our business was
founded on this product righthere.
I thought 20 years ago we wouldnever sell another one at
Venture.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And it's a leather diary just for anybody, still
our number one product.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So thumb luck, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Tech is the.
I think certain things withtech, like we don't really go
near the phones and watches.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Never make another phone case.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And iPad cases.
We stay away from all of that,you know, and.
But the journals justresurfaced and diaries came out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
We were very fortunate that we have a very,
very solid account base.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Which, in it, started out in the eighties with all
the department stores, and then,and with the B Allman's and the
IMAGNA's, all disappeared.
It was left Saks, neimanBergdorf, gryffini and a couple
others, and they're still withus.
So here's a reinvented product.
Five years ago we made this insilver and black for Barney's.
(24:25):
Wow, it's an inexpensiveshopper.
It's not a tote.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Okay, and that's made of leather.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
This is actually a synthetic.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
We don't do any synthetic on Gigi, but the
purpose of this thing isliterally like there's a bigger
one here.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And if you're welcoming up, maybe you take
this to the grocery store.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
It's a synthetic shopping bag that says Bergdorf
Goodman on it and I think that'svery aspirational.
I would love to use it, becausemy target bags I got to say I
don't know what status they'rebringing me.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I've got a lot of them, so go Baker One of our
biggest accounts is the entireWilliams-Sonoma group, and it's
hard to feed them.
They buy so much product, allright, so there are so many
different homes for thedifferent products that we make.
You know, william Snowman'sPottery Barn, it's Mark and
Graham.
It's West Elm, it's WilliamSnowman itself.
(25:23):
So, having built this customerbase for 45 years, it's not a
matter of whether they're goingto buy from us, but what they're
going to buy from us.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's a hard problem to have, isn't it?
Yeah, buy from us, but whatthey're going to buy from us,
that's a hard problem to have,isn't it that's?
And do you attribute all ofthat to the fact that you have
in-house production?
Do you think that is a one ofthe feather in your caps that
separates you from other brands,that because you're able to
turn around and you can controlthe quality and they know that
(25:53):
you're going to be on top of itone way or another?
Do you think that gives you anedge as to why people keep
coming back?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
All of the above, and good product, great quality.
I wish I could add to that thelove of Made in the US.
I don't know that that's assignificant today as I wish it
was.
We don't actually advertise itthat much.
We're more proud to advertiseour factory of American workers
than to put Made in USA on anyof the products.
(26:20):
But again, I'd be buying againfrom China today if I could, but
I can't.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Right, right, right right, alexia, if you don't mind
, just talking about theevolution of handbags and how
that's played in, and you saidthat you guys have been very
fortunate to have these topthree retailers.
Is it a different buyer who'sbuying the diaries versus the
handbags?
Like, was that interesting thatyou still needed to evolve the
(26:47):
product to?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
keep up with that.
It depends on the relationshipand I guess some of the
customers' faces do buy bothbrands, so that's to our
advantage where we can correlatethe colors in a little bit.
So that helps out a lot and Ithink it's grown over time.
But it's definitely shiftedfrom before COVID to after COVID
where now we have more of adrop ship available because we
(27:11):
do have the space for it.
We did a lot of small retailersbeforehand, so some of the
products weren't as aligned, Idon't think, as they are today,
because today we're able to dropship here and it's Well, it's
the first time you've used thatword drop ship.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That drop shipping has become the cornerstone of
our business.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Direct to DTC.
Direct to consumer.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I mean, when you go on Neiman Marcus and you buy a
bag, it comes directly from us.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So they're not actually buying the inventory.
It's on their website and thenit goes through you.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
We finance the whole thing and then we wait to be
paid.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
So that's so interesting because I have
worked with more designers,purely as a result of my
relationship, through theHandbag Awards, with independent
designers, so many of whom whohave their products sold at
online retail, and they've triedto get Macy's, walmart and so
forth to buy their productoutright so they would not have
(28:10):
to hold their breath every timethey're placing an inventory
order and having it shipped over.
But this D2C thing that none ofthese retailers want to own the
product, so it becomes an issue.
But I suppose you, owning andhaving control over that, you
actually have an idea of what tobuy and how much now.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, and we also have.
So we also have the graphicimage side that helps us finance
the GG side, as Thomas saidearlier.
You know what I mean.
So, and because we are madehere outside the door, I can
control the quantity ofproduction.
So I'm also not mass producing,which helps me a lot to kind of
navigate through the inventoryand work through.
(28:50):
You know bestsellers and whatis selling on these websites and
who's buying what bags, and I'mreally able I have such a good
idea now over the last couple ofyears being drop ship with
these companies.
You know what's really selling,what do I need to remake?
What am I?
If we're introducing a new bag,I can easily make a very small
number and see how it does.
(29:11):
And a lot of people don't havethat capability of kind of
shifting their inventory.
And we do have that luxury herebecause of who we have out,
like the number of people wehave, which is smaller crew but
they can turn out a lot of bagsvery quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You can imagine the process.
She just described why thatworks so well for drop ship
because we don't have to say inMarch we're going to sell a
thousand of these and a thousandof these and a thousand of
these and hope when Septembercomes we do it.
We can make as we need andchase what's really really being
successful.
I don't know how deep this dropship thing goes.
I know that for our customersit's all really being successful
.
I actually have.
(29:46):
I don't know how deep this dropship thing goes.
I know that for our customersit's all they really seem to
want anymore.
And I can't quite imaginetrying to do this without having
our own manufacturing becauseyou have to make so many calls
so far in advance.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And I think that the graphic image really helps out,
whereas, like these smallercompanies, all they have is a
handbag line, so they're reallyrelying on those bags to sell
and we have the graphic imagebehind us backing us, which does
very well for us, and not just,it also does very well on our
own website.
So, you know, we have that inour back pocket in order to like
(30:21):
help out with being able tomake these handbags and test
different markets and stuff likethat too.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So none of your retailers are buying inventory
at this point.
They just don't do that.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Not the big ones, not Saks.
Neiman's buys a little bit butnot in the handbags, but no it's
.
You know, as soon as you stopfighting the drop ship thing,
you can try to make it work foryou.
Right, you pulled a couple ofvery smart things before.
You said we're highlycontrolling the business.
We know everything about it.
When you ship 500 bags to astore and maybe they sell, maybe
(30:55):
they don't sell, you have noidea if they will put it out
properly, if they're evenputting it all Now.
we've run the business andthere's never a question.
From season to season, servershave no incentive not to carry
you as long as you're sellingand we always know what's
selling.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's also the key.
I have full control of whichbags customers are buying.
I monitor the websites and cansee what they're buying, so I
know what to remake and what notto If they're outright buying
it.
The control is gone what toremake and what not to If
they're outright buying it.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
The control's gone.
In December of this past yearwe would drop shipping upwards
of 1,200 to 1,300 packages a day.
Wow, I know.
And it's all the productscombined Between two brands.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Yeah, all hands on deck, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
It really is.
So none of these retailers likehow does it work if they want
to carry it in store, like, whatdoes that do?
Or do you actually stay awayfrom that because it's one less
headache that you don't need todeal with?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We used to covet the independent store Right and we
did okay with them, but therewere payment issues.
There was always the requestfor consignment.
They were a challenge.
They really, really were, andCOVID really gave us a reset
opportunity.
The business around COVID a lotof like.
(32:16):
I didn't even set up buyingdepartments that were strictly
online Right, and they were verymuch numbers crunchers Right.
And then they made a decisionwhere no, we need professional
handbag buyers buying thehandbags.
And they came to me and theysaid this was like three years
ago.
They had to bring down theirnumber of dropship vendors from
the 30s down to six or under.
(32:40):
And I said to the buyer after ayear, how are you going to
evaluate me?
I haven't brought anything newin in a year.
She goes.
All I can tell you, tom, is youmade the cut?
Our business with them hassoared ever since.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But let's just say that Neiman said we want to
place an order to have yourproduct in store as opposed to
online.
In store you can't drop ship,but that's not happening and
you're okay with that becauseit's so much easier, because you
can control everything.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'd like it to happen , but I don't need it to happen
and I'm not expecting it tohappen.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Wow, and in terms of you know, it's so funny because
I've known about Gigi New Yorkprobably for as long as the
handbag brand has been inexistence.
Just because that's my job totrack, I know that it hits a
certain demographic and it's notfor a very certain demographic.
You've been very fortunate thatthe people who buy your product
(33:33):
know what they're buyingsomething well-made, good,
leather, the whole thing.
How have you guys been able tohandle the marketing of it,
because your customer isn't theone who's going to be on TikTok
or on Instagram and watchingreels, because that, I mean I
could be totally incorrect.
How have you handled that toensure the constant buying over
(33:55):
and over?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, we had a big lift very early on in Gigi.
That maybe where you firstlearned about it.
We were on the ground floor ofthe bloggers.
We were doing bloggers withladies today we can't get near,
they're so huge, right, but theywant anybody.
Then, and there was a company,reward Style, which came before,
(34:19):
like to Know it, and we weredoing their fashion week holiday
hospitality suites when theyhad six, six, uh, six employees,
right, and these rock starbloggers would come in again
with that time.
They were nurses, they weremoms, they were not right, you
know, and they were calledbloggers.
They weren't influencers not yetand that gave us an enormous
(34:43):
lift early and and and.
We could never have affordedthe marketing that would have
gained us the kind of visibilityit did in those years.
Right, we still use them todaynot the same way at all, though
that's a whole other story butthe marketing came as a.
Again, we were lucky.
We were very fortunate that theperson in our tech area said we
(35:04):
need to connect with theseladies, and we didn't even know
what he was talking about.
He was right.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We've also definitely seen a shift with social media,
like in the last couple ofyears.
So we did because of all theseinfluencers, we reached a peak
and then with COVID, it was likeyou know, looking at different
things, so it started going down.
But now, recently, I thinksocial media is actually people
are looking at different things,so it started going down.
But now recently, I thinksocial media is actually people
are looking at social mediaagain and really buying through
(35:31):
Instagram and not necessarilyTikTok for us, but we're
definitely present on, you know,instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
One of our challenges is that we appeal to the 25 to
65.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, do you know that?
I mean within.
It's funny you say that becausewith my students we call it
narrow casting, where so manypeople say, oh, my customer is
25 to 65 and I and we have thisdeep dive thing.
Absolutely not, it can't be.
It's not who is your core,what's your sweet spot?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
But in terms of your product, has been through so
many iterations of lives I guessit is, and it depends on who
you talk to in the company,because you definitely have some
people who like to say it's anolder demographic, not older,
but you know not the 25, 35, 40.
It's more like you know 50 to65, 70.
(36:25):
And so it shifts and but we areable to make handbags that last
and are able to cover, you know, all demographics in a sense,
because we have the factory hereand we have a little, we have a
store here, so you know you canhave people come in and the
little boutiques all over thecountry people can shop there
and we do still have some ofthat business.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
But we refer to it as the Hermes day bag, Day bag.
They love the quality, theylove the bag, but when they go
out at night they want theEuropean brand name.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you rely now mostly ongifting for marketing?
Like to make sure that it stillgets into those hands.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Well, I mean, I think well, because we do have the
graphic image brand behind usfor gifting purposes.
That helps.
We kind of been trying to pushthat on our website in order to
really show the quality of workthat we can do and the work we
can do.
And now we are all producedhere and if you want to buy, you
know, that journal to go intoyour tote, you can Right.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Right, oh my God, this is I.
We could totally talk for hours.
This is I love.
Well, you know it's.
There's something to be said forpeople who can control what
they create and have.
And you know, especially withthe Gen Z customer.
And you know, especially withthe Gen Z customer, they are
absolutely not the same as theirpredecessors.
(37:49):
They shop differently, theythink differently.
They want to be heard, forbetter or for worse, of every
thought that they have at anygiven moment.
I call them generation feelingspurely because of that.
But it's you know, you need toknow how I'm feeling, and I
(38:11):
think that's purely as a resultof COVID, because these poor
kids were stuck inside for solong that they weren't able to
be normal and to be kids, andthis is how it's evolved.
But it's really exciting to seea brand that has been able
between generationally, evenbetween the two of you, that's
still able to prevail purelybecause of what you've created
(38:32):
in your own home per se.
So I want to thank you guysboth for doing this and being
part of this podcast.
I think this was reallyinteresting.
I mean, I know I'll want tolisten to this again.
How can we find you?
Follow you?
Learn more about Graphic Imageslash Gigi New York.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You can go on our websites graphicimagecom, and
then we have giginewyorkcom as aseparate website for both, and
then you can follow us also onInstagram under Gigi New York
and Graphic Image as a separateaccount.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
The fact that you guys were able to get graphic
imagecom.
I'm sure people tried to buythat off you.
As it is, that's a.
That's that's an early adopterright there.
Thank you, guys so much fordoing this.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and reviewand follow us on every single
platform at handbag designer.
(39:25):
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
We run the business and there's never a question
from season to season.
Servers have no incentive notto carry you as long as you're
selling Right.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
And we always know what's selling.
That's also the key.
I have full control of whichbags customers are buying.
I can you know.
I monitor the websites and cansee what they're buying, so I
know what to remake and what notto.
If they're outright buying it,you have no.
The control is gone.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the
podcast, with your host, emilyBlumenthal, handbag industry
expert and the handbag fairygodmother.
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
(00:45):
about handbags, this is yourfront row seat to it all.
Welcome, tom Glazer and AlexiaNelson of Graphic Image to
Handbag Designer 101, thepodcast.
Welcome, guys, welcome, thankyou.
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, let's just pull the curtain and find out who Oz
is behind Graphic Image.
What is the story of the namehaving Graphic Image being a
handbag brand and it's actuallyGigi New York, but it isn't Talk
to me about what that is.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So Graphic Image is the original company parent
company that was started in 1977.
And my father used the nameGraphic Image because he was a
graphic artist for 10 yearsbefore he intended to start his
own business.
So there's a long story there,but we'll just fast forward for
now to where Gigi came about.
The recession in 2009 was toughfor everybody and we were
(01:48):
determined to come out of itwith a business that stopped
going out of business, and bythat I mean our main graphic
image business was diaries,agendas, which we were afraid.
Even though they are runningstrong.
We were afraid that that wouldend.
We watched our main customerdepartment stores in the 80s all
go out of business.
There were so many more that weused to work with them and we
(02:08):
said to ourselves in 2009, let'smake a tote.
We were actually already makingtotes for Victoria's Secret, of
all companies.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Private label.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, we were hired to develop their Airford program
.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And you know, we were told that we'd be involved
until they didn't need usanymore, and that turned out to
be better.
Anyway, we took the tote bagsthat we had been making for them
.
We made one, we put them in theNew York gift show, because
that was the graphic imagemarket.
Today it's called New York Now,or something like that,
whatever.
We sold like 350 of them and wesaid, wow, there's a business
(02:47):
here.
So that was the beginning.
As far as the name is concerned, there's really two of them.
One would be Graphic Image 2,g-i-g-i.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Okay, look at that, because Gigi became a very chic
name and I thought, oh, someoneon trend, look at that.
Okay that's.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's special.
So go ahead.
It's another part of the nameand I had an important Gigi in
my family, not her name.
What's a Gigi great grandmother?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
ah, look at that.
So the double entendre was hadabsolutely nothing to do with an
actual name Gigi.
Oh my God, that is epic and PS.
Just a quick shout out.
The banging we hear in thebackground is what is that?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Our factory is right outside the door where we're
making our handbags.
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Has it always been like that, when you know, as you
had said before, we startedrecording and I don't know if
this aligned with the recessionbut the fact that your
predominant production or all ofyour production is done locally
, like you know, peek in and youcan watch it being made like
(04:05):
that, or was one supposed tofund the other?
And then it was like, screwthat, we're ahead of schedule
Because, as we all know, pricingis kind of key.
And how do you do that withmargins to try and keep
something affordable, especiallywhen you're working with
leather?
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Well, where do I begin?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We got time, tom, we got time.
You've got a secret sauce thatI think people should know about
.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
We began as bookbinders and nobody had ever
really put a high-end fashionleather on a book in any great
degree, and there were parts ofbeing in bookbinding that we had
to do ourselves because wecouldn't contract it on the
outside.
We could contract printing andsuch, but eventually we got into
making all the leather coversand we established really
(04:49):
premier accounts right from thestart Barney's, bergdorf,
goodman, neiman's, tiffany.
That leads to making books forthem and having a lot of
leftover material.
It's called the scrap.
We need to learn to make thingswith that for purposes of
costing.
So it began with book covers,went on to small leather goods
(05:09):
and then over time now we'retalking 40 years we graduated
into making more and morechallenging products.
So now here we are, 2011, andGigi's had a very successful
handbag launch One bag, one tote.
Where do we go from here?
The production on our own.
A lot of it had to do withhandbag launch One bag, one tote
.
Where do we go from here?
The production on our own.
A lot of it had to do withTiffany, too.
(05:29):
For 30 years we were the onlyvendor that made any Tiffany
product and it had to be madehere in the States.
And although we still work.
Now that Louis Vuitton's there,it's in a very, very different
capacity.
We're not running the show byany means anymore, but we needed
to learn to educate ourselveson how to do it.
The Victoria's Secret thing waskind of relevant, because they
(05:53):
wanted huge numbers of productsintroduced on very short order
and although we had to useoverseas for them, because of
the price point, the window ofmaking the product was so short,
we had to do all the samplingand development here.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
What an education that was.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I can't even imagine.
You can't imagine.
So we found a way to be able tosurvive making product here.
I'm not a China basher.
We have a fantastic plant inChina that we can't use anymore
because of what they cost.
I even go as far to say that aswe were learning to make bags,
they helped teach us about whatwe did and what was important,
and it was a really, reallywonderful experience.
(06:34):
But today it's all 100% here,whether it's the books or the
business card cases and such,all the way to the handbags, and
I think it'd be very difficultto make an inexpensive product
here and not to say that we'revery expensive.
But you need to.
I think you kind of need to bein luxury to afford to be able
to sell into the American market.
(06:54):
And we chose a price point forour handbags that was elevated.
I believe that most peoplewould see them as a step above
the mass produced bags in theUnited States, but we were down
below the thousand dollar bagscoming out of Europe, so we're
probably in our own niche.
There's some other companiesperhaps that we share that with,
but we've found a way to makeit work and it's just out of
(07:18):
what the invention is somethingof necessity or whatever.
We have great vendors fortanneries.
They help a lot too, ensuringthat the product is very, very
relevant.
And I guess, like I said, it's40 years of.
I could never do this overnight, but step by step, by step you
(07:48):
know, step by step by step.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
So can I ask you though, because totes are and
I'm not saying this isn't highlabor, but to make a tote is
probably the lowest laborhandbag that one could do.
So I think you know it wasfortuitous that Victoria's
Secret had asked you to dosomething like that.
But to expand the labor ofcreating something new beyond
that was that that must havebeen something hard to come to
(08:12):
terms with, price point wise,because the cost, the retail
cost of journals and diaries andso forth, is significantly less
to the customer than a handbagthat is.
You know you said it's below athousand, or what would the
price point range be?
And you know you've been aroundas long as Rebecca Minkoff, who
(08:34):
famously made her bags, took itdown to I think it was $4.95
from $5.95 or $3.95 from $4.95.
She was the famous one whobrought everybody's price points
down purely because she did itand had all the face time.
So how were you able to grapplewith that and saying, okay, if
we're going to expand on thiscategory, how do we not alienate
(08:57):
our current customer, or do wehave to find a brand new
customer for this, because theymight not be the same people?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, we were fortunate.
We happened to have what attimes in our lives has been a
cash cow and it's called graphicimage.
So it allowed us to be veryexperimental with Gigi and prior
to COVID, we took on contractwork.
We had 50 people in thedepartment and it was very hard
(09:25):
to make money there.
We did the coterie, the tradeshows and we catered to the
small store audiences.
And we made kind of a switchafter COVID which was to really
focus on three accounts Well,mainly Saxon, neiman, lucky us
today, right and now Nordstromas well, and the department is
(09:48):
more like now.
It's more like 12 to 15 peopleand we have the luxury of doing
small runs and really, reallycontrolling our costs.
They're probably and we'vealready getting the interest
because of what's going onpolitically in the world.
There probably are some verylarger opportunities out there
which I hope we can resistBecause it's very civilized
(10:10):
right now and we can reallyfocus.
Like for Neiman's last year wedid six bags that we didn't have
to sell to anybody else.
One other big customer I left.
That was our website.
And it's graphic images having agreat run right now.
What they're doing is westarted making deluxe leather
(10:33):
editions of popular books.
Wow, and this is just having.
It's a giving treat with kids'books, it's all you know.
It's having a great moment Forthose who are watching.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I'm sorry to interrupt.
Make sure you turn into theYouTube version of this just
purely to see what Tom just heldup.
It's super cool.
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, no, I just wanted to jump into the handbag
portion because, on the floor,what I found, too that has
helped us with our costs, iswe've really retained the
highest skilled workers outthere and we've kind of
reinvented bags that we startedoff with.
So some of our bags that cameout in 2012, we've used those
core shapes to kind of reinventthem today and make them a
(11:16):
little bit more intricate, withdifferent handles or different
pockets, interiors.
So the workers have reallybecome quite good at making and
skilled at these certainsilhouettes that they've, you
know, gotten faster and morecost efficient for us, and I
work really closely with them tomake sure that our you know
(11:36):
costing is in mind especially.
You know, we changeconstructions but we really
start with the same base.
I mean, we just introduced anew bucket bag that originally
came out in 2016.
It looks like a completely newbag.
So we try to, you know, keepthose main bags and then
reinvent them a little bit.
(11:57):
So that way people are used tomaking them and have made them
in the past, cause a lot of ouryou know workers who are making
the bags have been here for 10plus years.
I mean, they've been here morethan that 20 years.
So how?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
do you deal with sourcing?
The leather, though?
Are the tannery, the tanneries,domestic, I mean being Garmento
offspring forever.
Anyone who's listened.
I've spoken about this.
My dad was a converter and mymemory was him going down south,
you know, going to the mills.
I remember him going to Florida, I remember where Coach used to
(12:31):
make bags, all of those places,Like I know.
One time a factory couldn't payhim so he came home with cowboy
boots, Like you know the crazythings, but you know how,
considering the current tariffsituation and it's an
interesting game of politicalchicken that's going on right
(12:51):
now I believe it can't lastforever.
You know, at some point thingshave to change and go back and
revert.
That's just the nature and thecycle of life and clearly you
guys have a leg up for whatyou've created and I'm sure it's
hotter than ever.
But how do you deal withsourcing, with that matter?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
If you don't mind me asking no, no, it's fine.
I consider our leather sourcingto be one of the premier
strengths of the company andit's because we've been buying
elevated leathers since 1990.
And we got to really know allthe Italian and French tanneries
and made friendships by them.
It's also not hard to know whatare the top leathers coming out
(13:42):
when you're buying from thesame tannery Right.
Our main tannery is in France,Tannery Danone.
They were purchased by Hermesfive years ago.
Most of the large Europeanbrands have bought up different
tanneries.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Did that make it difficult for you?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
No, it made it difficult for the brands that
they kicked out of the tannery,but we were included.
It's a real asset to have awindow into what the best brands
are making are using forleathers and such Colors.
We're surprised at how oftenAlexi comes up with a palette
(14:20):
and we go into the tannery andthey're making the same colors.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I do my research.
He's on sound.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yep, the other big advantage.
Have you heard of Linea Pell?
Of course, okay.
So you go to Linea Pell and youdo your homework and you work
for three days, you know ninetill six o'clock, the whole day,
and you come away with likegreat stuff.
We have more things here topull on than we can do in one
season.
And we go not, we don't gotwice a year, but we don't miss
(14:50):
more than two shows consecutive.
We'll go back in the fall, andit's basically if you're in the
leather world, there's nothingyou can't find there.
And for those who don't know,Linea Palais is it's in Milan,
used to be in Bologna, and it'sa trade show for all the
tanneries all the hardwarepeople includes the synthetic
(15:12):
people, a lot of the fabric, youknow.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
All components.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, I mean I'm trying to think of anything that
you would not, you couldn't buythere, that you make a leather,
everything is there.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And this is the same show that's in New York, or a
different one.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yes, it is.
New York is a much smallerscale.
So, you won't see, I mean it'slike a quarter, no no, no, it's
1%.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, that's true, it's over there, but it does
have a lot of pre-made tanneries.
No, it's.
You know, given the quality ofwhat New York pulls in, we
always go.
It's very, but it becomes moreof a meeting place than you know
.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Repicking it's social hour.
It's social hour, it's verysocial yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's hard to get down an aisle in less than two hours
.
Oh my God.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Has any of this taught you that, especially
post-COVID, that you need tohedge your bets and make sure
that you have another tannery asa backup, purely because you
know if you're working with thebest people and they're being
acquired?
There's always a chance whereyou might get a phone call
saying, hey guys, so sorry, wecan't work with you anymore.
(16:16):
Because that, I think, is whata lot of people are dealing with
right now, purely because ofthe tariff situation, saying, oh
crap, like what are we going todo?
Do we ship from China and Chinato Europe and then Europe back?
Like there's an extra layer toput on?
Like I know dealing with a lotof manufacturing, specifically
(16:36):
that I am right now with theMiddle East.
They're not having any issues.
Go in China and ship directlyto the Middle East, it's super
easy.
So how do you grapple with allthat?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Well, one thing to realize is that, with all the
labor here, the 10% increase inthe cost of our leather probably
translates to no more than a 2%to 3% increase in the cost of
the end product.
So it's absorbable.
And there's another thing whichI didn't mention before, and
these tanneries I don't want toshare with you because they come
(17:08):
from France and Italy.
We have great, great contactsand tanneries in various
continents around the world andthe leather world in general.
In the last 20 or 30 years hasthe expensive leathers have
become more expensive and thebasic leathers have become less
(17:30):
expensive, right, and tanneriesthat can really churn out good
quality leather.
And you've got to be careful Ifyou're going to buy leather in
Brazil.
There's certain types ofleather they make very well.
Don't try to buy a smooth pieceof calfskin there because it's
going to be full of insect bites, right, right.
So you know, as you get to know, what you can buy and wear.
(17:52):
Like.
India is the home of goatskin,all right, there's so many
goatskin vendors.
You can buy there Beautifulgoatskins, and I understand the
vulnerability you described.
But fortunately, knock on woodfor now we're okay.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Right, right, right right.
It's so interesting, especiallywith, like what you said about
India versus Brazil.
I know there's a lot going onin one little spot in Spain
where everybody's going to rightnow for leather and, in some
cases, production.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I know there's this one one city and they're less
closely.
Spain is fantastic.
Yeah, yeah, it really is.
There's another way of buyingleather, too, and not that I
like advertising this.
But everybody has odd lots,yeah, and we buy a lot of
leather that is like $8, $9 afoot for half that because it's
(18:48):
a leftover color or a leftover.
This way, you're not givinganyone quality.
I couldn't buy some of theseodd lots and send it to another
factory, but because I had ithere.
If it's not working for ahandbag, I'm going to make a
passport case out of it orsomething like that.
But buying that way, that is anelement of our buying and it
(19:08):
pays off.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Go ahead.
I was just going to say to jumpinto this and back to the
original costing conversation isbecause we do have graphic
image here.
We have so many smallaccessories that we're able to
cut all the scrap leather out of, to save costs on everything
and able to sell it that way,which is huge, so I could be
cutting handbags.
We have a pen.
We can make you know leatherwrapped pens, luggage tags, pap
(19:33):
sport cases, all these reallysmall accessories with all the
scraps.
So we're using the entire skinwhich we have the luxury here
because we have both brands.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, everything we could possibly cut.
We cut these little patternsout to wrap pens, we send it
over to Taiwan and they do itfor us.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Oh my God.
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(21:24):
So that is a really interestingquestion topic that you bring up
about no wastage.
Because number one you guyshave tackled and I think are 10
steps ahead of everybody,because sustainability obviously
is such a hot topic.
Yada yada, leather isn'tsustainable.
You and I all know that it isbecause, especially if you're
(21:47):
not wasting it, but this idea ofno wastage and being so on top
of that you're never concernedabout.
Okay, we're creating pen casesor pen caps.
Are you ever worried, like it'sgreat, we're not wasting this
leather, but who's going to buyit?
Or you know you'll always havea customer, because that's just
(22:07):
as costly of creating a productthat you don't know who you're
going to sell it to.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, most of these products are already on the
graphic image side because wehave the two brands in house, so
we have a whole graphic imageline, as Tom was saying earlier.
That's, you know, bookbinding.
It started as bookbinding butwe have the leather wrapped
books, but we also have atremendous amount of accessories
.
So all those leathers, nomatter what, can be put into
those products and we can kindof create, you know, new colors,
(22:35):
but they're all already there.
We have a separate graphicimage website that we can.
You know.
I know, when I'm creating ahandbag and I know the leathers
and colors we could, I we buy.
You know, sometimes similarcolors to be like this could
easily go into a graphic imageproduct, so we're saving all the
leather for it.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Was there any concern about that business?
Especially with the rise ofphones and you know, the watch
business, the luxury watchbusiness, has skyrocketed.
Now who's wearing a watch?
People who want to be seenwearing a watch because it means
something Other than that noone is going to wear a watch,
(23:17):
like it's status-related.
Was that any concern with theevolution of tech?
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Well again, where's the period Our business was
founded on this product righthere.
I thought 20 years ago we wouldnever sell another one at
Venture.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And it's a leather diary just for anybody, still
our number one product.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So thumb luck, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Tech is the.
I think certain things withtech, like we don't really go
near the phones and watches.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Never make another phone case.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And iPad cases.
We stay away from all of that,you know, and.
But the journals justresurfaced and diaries came out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
We were very fortunate that we have a very,
very solid account base.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Which, in it, started out in the eighties with all
the department stores, and then,and with the B Allman's and the
IMAGNA's, all disappeared.
It was left Saks, neimanBergdorf, gryffini and a couple
others, and they're still withus.
So here's a reinvented product.
Five years ago we made this insilver and black for Barney's.
(24:25):
Wow, it's an inexpensiveshopper.
It's not a tote.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Okay, and that's made of leather.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
This is actually a synthetic.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
We don't do any synthetic on Gigi, but the
purpose of this thing isliterally like there's a bigger
one here.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
And if you're welcoming up, maybe you take
this to the grocery store.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
It's a synthetic shopping bag that says Bergdorf
Goodman on it and I think that'svery aspirational.
I would love to use it, becausemy target bags I got to say I
don't know what status they'rebringing me.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I've got a lot of them, so go Baker One of our
biggest accounts is the entireWilliams-Sonoma group, and it's
hard to feed them.
They buy so much product, allright, so there are so many
different homes for thedifferent products that we make.
You know, william Snowman'sPottery Barn, it's Mark and
Graham.
It's West Elm, it's WilliamSnowman itself.
(25:23):
So, having built this customerbase for 45 years, it's not a
matter of whether they're goingto buy from us, but what they're
going to buy from us.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's a hard problem to have, isn't it?
Yeah, buy from us, but whatthey're going to buy from us,
that's a hard problem to have,isn't it that's?
And do you attribute all ofthat to the fact that you have
in-house production?
Do you think that is a one ofthe feather in your caps that
separates you from other brands,that because you're able to
turn around and you can controlthe quality and they know that
(25:53):
you're going to be on top of itone way or another?
Do you think that gives you anedge as to why people keep
coming back?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
All of the above, and good product, great quality.
I wish I could add to that thelove of Made in the US.
I don't know that that's assignificant today as I wish it
was.
We don't actually advertise itthat much.
We're more proud to advertiseour factory of American workers
than to put Made in USA on anyof the products.
(26:20):
But again, I'd be buying againfrom China today if I could, but
I can't.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Right, right, right right, alexia, if you don't mind
, just talking about theevolution of handbags and how
that's played in, and you saidthat you guys have been very
fortunate to have these topthree retailers.
Is it a different buyer who'sbuying the diaries versus the
handbags?
Like, was that interesting thatyou still needed to evolve the
(26:47):
product to?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
keep up with that.
It depends on the relationshipand I guess some of the
customers' faces do buy bothbrands, so that's to our
advantage where we can correlatethe colors in a little bit.
So that helps out a lot and Ithink it's grown over time.
But it's definitely shiftedfrom before COVID to after COVID
where now we have more of adrop ship available because we
(27:11):
do have the space for it.
We did a lot of small retailersbeforehand, so some of the
products weren't as aligned, Idon't think, as they are today,
because today we're able to dropship here and it's Well, it's
the first time you've used thatword drop ship.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That drop shipping has become the cornerstone of
our business.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Direct to DTC.
Direct to consumer.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I mean, when you go on Neiman Marcus and you buy a
bag, it comes directly from us.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So they're not actually buying the inventory.
It's on their website and thenit goes through you.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
We finance the whole thing and then we wait to be
paid.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
So that's so interesting because I have
worked with more designers,purely as a result of my
relationship, through theHandbag Awards, with independent
designers, so many of whom whohave their products sold at
online retail, and they've triedto get Macy's, walmart and so
forth to buy their productoutright so they would not have
(28:10):
to hold their breath every timethey're placing an inventory
order and having it shipped over.
But this D2C thing that none ofthese retailers want to own the
product, so it becomes an issue.
But I suppose you, owning andhaving control over that, you
actually have an idea of what tobuy and how much now.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah, and we also have.
So we also have the graphicimage side that helps us finance
the GG side, as Thomas saidearlier.
You know what I mean.
So, and because we are madehere outside the door, I can
control the quantity ofproduction.
So I'm also not mass producing,which helps me a lot to kind of
navigate through the inventoryand work through.
(28:50):
You know bestsellers and whatis selling on these websites and
who's buying what bags, and I'mreally able I have such a good
idea now over the last couple ofyears being drop ship with
these companies.
You know what's really selling,what do I need to remake?
What am I?
If we're introducing a new bag,I can easily make a very small
number and see how it does.
(29:11):
And a lot of people don't havethat capability of kind of
shifting their inventory.
And we do have that luxury herebecause of who we have out,
like the number of people wehave, which is smaller crew but
they can turn out a lot of bagsvery quickly.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
You can imagine the process.
She just described why thatworks so well for drop ship
because we don't have to say inMarch we're going to sell a
thousand of these and a thousandof these and a thousand of
these and hope when Septembercomes we do it.
We can make as we need andchase what's really really being
successful.
I don't know how deep this dropship thing goes.
I know that for our customersit's all really being successful
.
I actually have.
(29:46):
I don't know how deep this dropship thing goes.
I know that for our customersit's all they really seem to
want anymore.
And I can't quite imaginetrying to do this without having
our own manufacturing becauseyou have to make so many calls
so far in advance.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And I think that the graphic image really helps out,
whereas, like these smallercompanies, all they have is a
handbag line, so they're reallyrelying on those bags to sell
and we have the graphic imagebehind us backing us, which does
very well for us, and not just,it also does very well on our
own website.
So, you know, we have that inour back pocket in order to like
(30:21):
help out with being able tomake these handbags and test
different markets and stuff likethat too.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So none of your retailers are buying inventory
at this point.
They just don't do that.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Not the big ones, not Saks.
Neiman's buys a little bit butnot in the handbags, but no it's
.
You know, as soon as you stopfighting the drop ship thing,
you can try to make it work foryou.
Right, you pulled a couple ofvery smart things before.
You said we're highlycontrolling the business.
We know everything about it.
When you ship 500 bags to astore and maybe they sell, maybe
(30:55):
they don't sell, you have noidea if they will put it out
properly, if they're evenputting it all Now.
we've run the business andthere's never a question.
From season to season, servershave no incentive not to carry
you as long as you're sellingand we always know what's
selling.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
That's also the key.
I have full control of whichbags customers are buying.
I monitor the websites and cansee what they're buying, so I
know what to remake and what notto If they're outright buying
it.
The control is gone what toremake and what not to If
they're outright buying it.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
The control's gone.
In December of this past yearwe would drop shipping upwards
of 1,200 to 1,300 packages a day.
Wow, I know.
And it's all the productscombined Between two brands.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Yeah, all hands on deck, I suppose.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
It really is.
So none of these retailers likehow does it work if they want
to carry it in store, like, whatdoes that do?
Or do you actually stay awayfrom that because it's one less
headache that you don't need todeal with?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We used to covet the independent store Right and we
did okay with them, but therewere payment issues.
There was always the requestfor consignment.
They were a challenge.
They really, really were, andCOVID really gave us a reset
opportunity.
The business around COVID a lotof like.
(32:16):
I didn't even set up buyingdepartments that were strictly
online Right, and they were verymuch numbers crunchers Right.
And then they made a decisionwhere no, we need professional
handbag buyers buying thehandbags.
And they came to me and theysaid this was like three years
ago.
They had to bring down theirnumber of dropship vendors from
the 30s down to six or under.
(32:40):
And I said to the buyer after ayear, how are you going to
evaluate me?
I haven't brought anything newin in a year.
She goes.
All I can tell you, tom, is youmade the cut?
Our business with them hassoared ever since.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
But let's just say that Neiman said we want to
place an order to have yourproduct in store as opposed to
online.
In store you can't drop ship,but that's not happening and
you're okay with that becauseit's so much easier, because you
can control everything.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'd like it to happen , but I don't need it to happen
and I'm not expecting it tohappen.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Wow, and in terms of you know, it's so funny because
I've known about Gigi New Yorkprobably for as long as the
handbag brand has been inexistence.
Just because that's my job totrack, I know that it hits a
certain demographic and it's notfor a very certain demographic.
You've been very fortunate thatthe people who buy your product
(33:33):
know what they're buyingsomething well-made, good,
leather, the whole thing.
How have you guys been able tohandle the marketing of it,
because your customer isn't theone who's going to be on TikTok
or on Instagram and watchingreels, because that, I mean I
could be totally incorrect.
How have you handled that toensure the constant buying over
(33:55):
and over?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, we had a big lift very early on in Gigi.
That maybe where you firstlearned about it.
We were on the ground floor ofthe bloggers.
We were doing bloggers withladies today we can't get near,
they're so huge, right, but theywant anybody.
Then, and there was a company,reward Style, which came before,
(34:19):
like to Know it, and we weredoing their fashion week holiday
hospitality suites when theyhad six, six, uh, six employees,
right, and these rock starbloggers would come in again
with that time.
They were nurses, they weremoms, they were not right, you
know, and they were calledbloggers.
They weren't influencers not yetand that gave us an enormous
(34:43):
lift early and and and.
We could never have affordedthe marketing that would have
gained us the kind of visibilityit did in those years.
Right, we still use them todaynot the same way at all, though
that's a whole other story butthe marketing came as a.
Again, we were lucky.
We were very fortunate that theperson in our tech area said we
(35:04):
need to connect with theseladies, and we didn't even know
what he was talking about.
He was right.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
We've also definitely seen a shift with social media,
like in the last couple ofyears.
So we did because of all theseinfluencers, we reached a peak
and then with COVID, it was likeyou know, looking at different
things, so it started going down.
But now, recently, I thinksocial media is actually people
are looking at different things,so it started going down.
But now recently, I thinksocial media is actually people
are looking at social mediaagain and really buying through
(35:31):
Instagram and not necessarilyTikTok for us, but we're
definitely present on, you know,instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
One of our challenges is that we appeal to the 25 to
65.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, do you know that?
I mean within.
It's funny you say that becausewith my students we call it
narrow casting, where so manypeople say, oh, my customer is
25 to 65 and I and we have thisdeep dive thing.
Absolutely not, it can't be.
It's not who is your core,what's your sweet spot?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
But in terms of your product, has been through so
many iterations of lives I guessit is, and it depends on who
you talk to in the company,because you definitely have some
people who like to say it's anolder demographic, not older,
but you know not the 25, 35, 40.
It's more like you know 50 to65, 70.
(36:25):
And so it shifts and but we areable to make handbags that last
and are able to cover, you know, all demographics in a sense,
because we have the factory hereand we have a little, we have a
store here, so you know you canhave people come in and the
little boutiques all over thecountry people can shop there
and we do still have some ofthat business.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
But we refer to it as the Hermes day bag, Day bag.
They love the quality, theylove the bag, but when they go
out at night they want theEuropean brand name.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you rely now mostly ongifting for marketing?
Like to make sure that it stillgets into those hands.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Well, I mean, I think well, because we do have the
graphic image brand behind usfor gifting purposes.
That helps.
We kind of been trying to pushthat on our website in order to
really show the quality of workthat we can do and the work we
can do.
And now we are all producedhere and if you want to buy, you
know, that journal to go intoyour tote, you can Right.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Right, oh my God, this is I.
We could totally talk for hours.
This is I love.
Well, you know it's.
There's something to be said forpeople who can control what
they create and have.
And you know, especially withthe Gen Z customer.
And you know, especially withthe Gen Z customer, they are
absolutely not the same as theirpredecessors.
(37:49):
They shop differently, theythink differently.
They want to be heard, forbetter or for worse, of every
thought that they have at anygiven moment.
I call them generation feelingspurely because of that.
But it's you know, you need toknow how I'm feeling, and I
(38:11):
think that's purely as a resultof COVID, because these poor
kids were stuck inside for solong that they weren't able to
be normal and to be kids, andthis is how it's evolved.
But it's really exciting to seea brand that has been able
between generationally, evenbetween the two of you, that's
still able to prevail purelybecause of what you've created
(38:32):
in your own home per se.
So I want to thank you guysboth for doing this and being
part of this podcast.
I think this was reallyinteresting.
I mean, I know I'll want tolisten to this again.
How can we find you?
Follow you?
Learn more about Graphic Imageslash Gigi New York.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
You can go on our websites graphicimagecom, and
then we have giginewyorkcom as aseparate website for both, and
then you can follow us also onInstagram under Gigi New York
and Graphic Image as a separateaccount.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
The fact that you guys were able to get graphic
imagecom.
I'm sure people tried to buythat off you.
As it is, that's a.
That's that's an early adopterright there.
Thank you, guys so much fordoing this.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thanks for listening.
Don't forget to rate and reviewand follow us on every single
platform at handbag designer.
(39:25):
Thanks so much.
See you next time.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.