Australia's Mon Purse seeks to stop overproduction stateside

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Jan 9, 2017

An Australian fashion label wants to stop the overproduction of handbags with its new ‘build-a-bear’ inspired way of customizing a handbag. Mon Purse, while born and bred in Sydney, has just completed a successful first few months after taking the leap stateside to partner with Bloomingdales.

The company model is similar to that of Build-a-Bears – consumers can go to Mon Purse’s brick-and-mortar location or e-commerce site and pick out every aspect of their bag, from strap color to leather finish to hardware color. Mon Purse found great success in its home country of Australia, opening up six shops-in-shop in the two years since the company launched. Mon Purse quickly branched out to open two more outposts in Selfridges locations in the United Kingdom before stepping foot on American soil in late 2016. The brand’s stateside move was met with much success. Mon Purse has already released a collaboration with InStyle's Laura Brown, as well as now owns an impressive customization lab in New York City's Bloomingdales.

“When meeting the Bloomingdale's team, we felt that their approach to innovation aligned best with Mon Purse. Combining luxury with contemporary retail, the Bloomingdale's experience is fun, cool, modern and fashionable, just like Mon Purse. We got a yes from Bloomingdale's the day we pitched, which is fairly unheard of,” Mon Purse told FashionNetwork.

“The team at Bloomingdale's were incredibly blown away by the Mon Purse bag builder technology, product quality and execution, all of which lead to our launch into our first US retail location. We’re absolutely proud to represent Australian style and innovation in the Northern Hemisphere."

The company is focused on ending overproduction – each bag can be customized down to the most minute detail in order to help every woman find her perfect bag without being swayed by fast-fashion market trends. Mon Purse allows every woman to design her bag from the ground up.

Every bag is made custom - while it can take up to four weeks to receive a bag, customers design the ideal bag through the brands 3D visual technology available in-store and on the website. If four weeks is too long, customers can opt for monogramming on one of the pre-designed bags available in store.

The brand offers dozens of bag silhouettes that can be customized six billion ways – including five different leather finishes, 28 different colors, monogramming, fringing, hardware choices, and suede lining color. Over $20 million worth of revenue is expected to move by Mon Purse in the 2017 fiscal year.