Thank you diva in a carry on, for chosing us as your carry on of the week!

Diva in a carry on is a fantastic travel tips and resource blog for all women (aka diva's) who are looking to make their travel time effortless and more divalicious!
Are you on the hunt for that perfect moisturizer to combat that dreadful airplane air? Are you looking for the 'just right' cosmetic case? Or do you need overall help with packing and travelling light without sacrificing style or comfort? If so, check them out, "...because real women don't check luggage!"

Logo courtesy of diva in a carry on

STYLEFEEDER: Your Personal Shopping Engine

When my sister and I were young, we would go through clothing catalogs and pick out our favorite outfit on each page. Now you need to keep in mind that back then the catalogs we had were: Sears, JC Penney & Spiegels...not a big pool of couture or edgy designers to expand our 8 to 10 year old taste levels, but it was the beginning of our style identities.

Fast forward to today. My sister and I no longer get the opportunity to play the "flip through the magazines" game, but there is a new website that takes our little game to a whole new level. STYLEFEEDER. Stylefeeder is a Personal Shopping Engine that lets you save your favorite finds online and then share them with other Stylefeeders around the world. There is a handy tool you can put below your favorites menu that captures and 'Adds to you Stylefeed' with the click of a button (check out my stylefeed to the right lower side of this blog). You can also be connected with others that have a similar style to yours, aka, "Style Twins" and you can follow others to see what they're adding to their Stylefeed (Watchlist).

They just launched their new blog that hands the reins of over to their most active StyleFeeders called the Tastemaker Diaries . I just so happen to be one of their 'bloggers' which is a HUGE compliment since I'm such a big, big fan. My persona is The Handbag Designer. I even have a tag line...."Lori’s got her hands full launching a new handbag line, but she still has time to scout the latest in independent design for awesome accessories."

Anyway, enough about me :) ...check it out for yourself, or better yet try it out! It might be your new obsession.

is it a HANDBAG that doubles as a TOTE BAG or vice versa?

Since we’ve been contacted by style/fashion bloggers one surprising question came up. What makes a HARDWARE handbag differ from say a cotton canvas L.L Bean or Lands End tote bag? Well, I have to say, that this question really threw me for a loop. I have a Land’s End tote and I used to sell fabric to L.L. Bean (a great outdoor brand and company) but our bags are not in that category I don't think. Our SHORTY and SHOPPER from the Nylon Canvas collection is meant to be a handbag (albeit a sporty one) for your personal things that also doubles as a tote (babies/beach/gym/work) instead of a tote doubling as a handbag.

Here’s a picture gallery to give you some additional shots we don’t have on our website to give you a closer, inside look at our line:

inside look of a SHORTY. can you see the big pockets? if not see below.....



inside my everyday SHORTY bag. if i'm going to the gym i just 'add in' my ipod and water to the deep side pockets and go.

same SHORTY...taking daughter to ballet.....

inside my SHOPPER. The super deep pockets hold a large Nalgene bottle, magazine, large wallet, etc.


Model Mikyn on a beautiful, early fall day with the SHOPPER


Mikyn with the SHORTY...

HARDWARE inspiration: INDEPENDENT music..bybrad

I was just listening to one of my favorite musicians, Brad Shepard. Music and design go hand in hand for me so without my favorite artists in the background keeping me company I really don't think I'd get very far...design wise that is.
Being an independent designer I like to support and find other independent artists on garageband.com. Brad's song Waterglass won Track Of The Day earlier this year on GarageBand. Check him out: http://www.garageband.com/artist/musicbybrad/songs
If you want to find your own indie inspiration go to: http://www.garageband.com/ to see who you can groove to.

Thanks Wardrobe Oxygen!

A couple of days ago we 'officially' launched our site and let several style bloggers know that we're here and ready to get the word out that HARDWARE handbags is a new brand ready for the big leagues. We would first like to thank Wardrobe Oxygen for featuring us the same day we contacted them.
Allie gave us a fantastic write up without even seeing the line in person (which she doesn’t normally do) so that was a huge compliment. Thanks Allie!

HARDWARE Tid Bits and Popsicle Sticks

Well, the Eve of our Website Launch is FINALLY here! It’s been a long road, but we now have our first big production run ready and waiting to ship out to our customers. You can also rest assured that I oversaw the production at a great factory in Seattle, Washington USA so you know where they’ve been built and painstakingly put together. Even though the design is clean and simple, there are special tools that needed to be made to run production on a larger scale and the process was well worth the time and effort!

In case you’re new to our HARDWARE line we decided to start with our two most popular SHORTY & SHOPPER styles from our NYLON CANVAS Collection and build from there.

So, with that said, here's just a few added tid-bits regarding our HARDWARE handbag line:

In case you're wondering what makes our stainless steel handles eco-friendly, click here so you can feel great carrying not only a unique bag, but one that's not so hard on our environment.

The Nylon Canvas fabric AKA backpack fabric is durable enough for the concrete jungle and/or...your adorable sticky, messy toddler (mine covered in blue popsicle above). Being a former textile mill rep I can't help but to elaborate on the fabric so click here if you're so inclined. I haven't found a eco-friendly fabric that's as durable as the nylon canvas yet, but rest assured I'm still on the hunt and when I do you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, because our fabric is so durable and our styles are modern and not of-the-moment-trend, our hope is that you'll carry your HARDWARE handbag for years to come!

Design Inspiration: STELLA MCCARTNEY

Who says you need to use 'real' leather for luxury shoes and bags? Did you know that high-end faux leathers look and feel like real leather in addition to possessing the same durability and easy cleaning properties of performance fabrics? If you add an environmental and animal-friendly story to ‘boot’ do we really need to turn Bambi and Bessie into hides? I think not.

Just check out Stella's sexy fall boots below, and you'll see for yourself that 'faux' can be fabulous!

I absolutely love these killer boots! The brown piping on the mushroom color is so cool and dramatic. Available at Bergdorf Goodman

These have a 'old school' 70's look to them that I love. You can't beat the textured faux patent and the gold detail on the heel. This is one sexy bootie! Available at Bergdorf Goodman

I like the belted detail and the faux patent leather in a brown/black tortoiseshell look...so versatile don't you think? Also available at Bergdorf Goodman

images courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman