Black Owned Bags: the start of my collection
Investing in Black-owned brands when it comes to bags, accessories (and even skincare) can signify much more than adding style and value to your closet. It means supporting communities and stories that come from resilience and pure passion for the industry.
I didn’t get a fashion degree, neither a business one. I hold no MBA (Masters of Business Administration), Associates or Bachelors in finance, accounting, or even marketing. However, journalism gave me enough tools to sharp my investigative skills to understand the value of a piece of fashion, by analyzing the sociological, cultural, and artistic impact.
I haven’t considered myself a bag/puruse person until Telfar came out. Coming from Italy, bags and accessories should have been a reality and something I should have been an expert of since the day of my birth. However, the world of fashion didn’t hit me until I was in the United States.
The aspect that got me into fashion was beauty, specifically hair care and hair styles. Being a 3B/3C kinda girl, in college i discovered the flourishing beauty of my curls, bouncing and voluptuous over my head. After my hair, I started focusing much more on dressing, nails, shoes, and later on bags came in.
There are two reasons that pushed me into exploring this world:
1) I needed a bag. I was tired of always being captured in pictures with the same bag, the same backpack, and the same wallet. The pandemic forced me to look at my wardrobe and I realized how little I had in terms of accessories. I am a very minimal person, but how terrible was to add a couple of more bags in my fashion collection?
Medium Telfar, May 2021
This was my graduation gift. I love this vibrant color and since blue is my favorite color, I wanted to buy this bag for the summer after a tough year I had. I’m waiting to purchase the large one, possibly in lavender or yellow or white!
2) I read an article by Nandi Howard. In this piece, she was illustrating how much of a good move could actually be investing in a Hermès bag. I did my research and sorted a final decision for myself: I shall start investing in bags.
As a non-American citizen fresh out of college, investing and dealing with stocks with your own bank account may be difficult, if not impossible due to certain regulations. While I was seeing my American friends getting practical with their finances, I didn’t want to give up on the idea that I could still step into my wallet knowledge in my own way. So I decided to invest and buy little by little bags and accessories from Black-owned brands.
I’ve been investing my money in Black-owned brands for specific reasons:
1) The owners’ stories and background speak more to me rather than a major maison’s history. They usually come from small-business realities that have gotten the chance to expose their potential and talent among a world made of different cultures. This is the kind of growth I hope to witness more and more, not only for the business part of fashion (merchandise), but also for the talents division, the creative aspect, and the editorial spaces
I’m patiently waiting for this piece by Homeage, possibly in brown!
Isn’t it she cute?
2) True, I do come from Italy. True, I was born and raised in the city of leather, Florence, but we have poor representation of races and heritages when it comes to the fashion world. We see a lot of talent, but not enough diversity with Black, Brown, or Asian Italians. It means a lot to me to be able to wear something that was built by a person whose heritage is similar to mine. I am a cosmopolitan person, and I intend to invest my time and money in searching for materialistic content that represents what I believe in - community and intentional support!
Make sure to check my first and latest guide on Instagram and get to know more details about my collection. This is only the beginning, always on the beat!
