Posts with tag diaper bags

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there and we wanted to find out more about what makes these creative types tick. If you do too, check out more of our Indie Designer Interviews.

If there's an expectant mother in your life, Melissa Naclerio of Dragonfly Fine Designs has the perfect choice of baby shower gifts for you. Specializing in handmade goods for the modern mama and chic baby, Melissa creates a variety of unique gift items including diaper cakes & washcloth lollipop bucket bouquets, diaper and wipe carriers, burp cloths and other fun baby shower gifts.

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there. In order to find out more about just what makes all of these creative types tick, we present to you an ongoing segment called Indie Designer Interviews.

Today's interview is with Indian-born artist Sowmya Parigi. She creates hand-painted, eco-friendly jute handbags, wine caddies, diaper bags and more, available online at her website SVA Creations.

I'm a big fan of all of the amazing independent designers out there. In an effort to get inside the mind of the indie designer and find out just what makes all of these creative types tick, I present to you an ongoing segment I call Indie Designer Interviews.

Today's interview is with Merle OBrien, the Aspen, Colorado-based designer behind a line of eco handbags called OlovesM, which were recently handed out to celebs attending the Sundance Film Festival. These fashionable and environmentally friendly bags feature predominantly recycled materials, including a snazzy sport/diaper bag made from repurposed yoga mats.

How did you get started as a designer? I was in yoga class and the idea for my bags just popped into my head, so I ran off my mat and started doing a ton of research, and cut and sewed a lot of prototypes until I figured it out. I am one of those people who is always thinking about ideas, and some seem to work, while others just help me learn more do's and dont's about business!!

I guess Mom are getting pretty tired of carrying around enormous diaper bags that could double as suitcases. Just last week I came across Bella Fiore's brightly-patterned diaper clutches, and today, I've landed on a veritable mine of diaper clutches at In Style Moms.

The Stella Diaper Clutch by Offhand Designs ($70) isn't exactly a clutch since it does have velvet handle, but it's uniquely triangular shape and super sparkle give it a lifetime beyond baby's diaper-wearing years. The Stella comes in multiple colors and includes a changing pad inside.

My favorite, however, is the Baby Starlet Diaper Clutch ($35), which is about half the price of the Stella. The clutch really is a clutch, and features pockets for diapers, wipes and cream. This clutch is a little more efficient because the bag itself unwraps into a flannel-backed changing pad, then rolls back up again and fastens with a contrasting "belt."

Now all I need to do is borrow a baby!

I'm not a mom (yet? soon? never? who knows!), but I've hung out with my new-mom sister enough to have some idea of what it's like. One of the things I've noticed is that when a Mom goes out anywhere with her baby, she turns into a sherpa. She carries not only her own oversized handbag, but also has to tote along a diaper bag, which more often than not, screams "diaper bag!!!" from three miles away because they're pale pink or baby blue or have some other obviously childish adornments.

Not so with Mia Bossi bags. Mia Bossi bags are diaper bags disguised as regular handbags. You may ask, "Why wouldn't I just use an oversized handbag that seem to be all the rage these days anyway?" You could, but more than likely, that regular oversized handbag is just a giant, shapeless cavern. Mia Bossi bags actually have the same features as diaper bags -- exterior bottle holders, interior bottle holder, exterior pockets, keychain holder, diaper holder, baby wipe holder, and a private zippered pocket for all the other stuff that Moms carry.

The Alisa bag in caramel, shown, is $560. Most of the Mia Bossi bags can also be converted into laptop bags with a different insert.

Every time I see a woman carrying a quilted Vera Bradley handbag, I start to wonder if she is wearing it as a joke. Hipsters wear those Bjorn Borg tennis shorts or those tacky trucker hat as jokes, as if an item of clothing could say, "Hey, I'm so cool that I can totally pull off dressing like a dork."

But I tend to doubt that's the motivation. By and large, the people I see carrying Vera Bradley bags aren't hipsters. So how and when did this trend get started?

Here's what I think happened:

Some Alpha Consumer – think: pretty blonde in a very exclusive sorority – decided to play a trick on all of her lemming friends. So she combed the internet looking to popularize something worn exclusively by grannies in retirement communities. In doing so, she came across a bag so ugly, so unspeakable heinous, that she knew that her sorority girls would assume she had lost her ever-loving-mind.

But the plan didn't work. Within a month, all of the Alpha Consumer's big sisters and little sisters were carrying adult diaper bags, in various shapes and sizes. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh about it or worry about it, but by that point it was too late. The trend was set.

Hmmmm ... I guess my story ran a little wayward. But it couldn't possibly be more wayward than deciding to carry around a Vera Bradley bag.