Arts For the Love of Purses Stella Page combines her experience, talent, training, resources, and passions in creating purses that bring ancient, ethnic, and eternal themes together in stunning combinations of form and function.

by Stella Page

I’m the proprietor of Stella Page Designs. We design, create, and market a line of custom purses.

Not long ago I addressed a group of art students in a class at San Francisco’s Academy of Arts. They wanted to learn what it takes to run a successful design business. Of course, there are a number of requirements including the ability to create great designs, find effective advertising, manage payroll, keep the books, etcetera. The main requirement for my own success, however, was to basically follow the path where my heart led me.

I had a fabulous childhood, being born and raised in Palo Alto. Both my parents were artists. Dad was an architect who designed the Town & Country Shopping Centers. Mom regarded her clothing and house as media for her artistic passions. She might come out of her bedroom wearing a powder blue cashmere sweater dress accented by chocolate colored crocodile high heels.

Chasing My Own Rainbow

I’ve always had great belief in myself, and in everyone else around me, as well. I would go to the LA Midnight Mission and teach kids who were living in cars. They were homeless, but they weren’t dumb. I made them tell me about their dreams and kept speaking to the potential that they all had.

I would go into jails so I could talk to female inmates. I would ask the women, “Tell me about your dreams!” After they had expressed what they really wanted out of life, I would encourage them to go for it. But then I would let them know that achieving any dream demands an intensity of focus.

“Suit up and show up, I would tell them. To follow your dream you have to get up and go do it. Nobody else will make it happen if you don’t. You must be prepared to pay the price.” I’m a specialist when it comes to making dreams come true. I worked as a waitress for 25 years, but the heart of an artist was beating beneath the name badge on my waitress uniform. Design has always come easy to me. I started drawing couture clothing as a serious hobby when I was 17 years old. I did hundreds and thousands of drawings and fashions. I would bring glittering creations into being by adding one seed pearl at a time.

A teacher once told me, “Your clothes would be too expensive to actually make.” I didn’t care! I was designing dresses for princesses. They would be able to afford to buy them! I continued my hobby into adulthood. I would design on paper entire fashion collections. Even today, instead of counting sheep, I’ll lie there in the darkness and design clothes in my imagination.

Handcraft became a big part of my early life and I began embellishing household objects and personal items. Even decorating large pieces of furniture. Anything could become a blank canvas — a medium with which I could work my artistic magic. I became prolific even while I was doing this as a hobby. I would sometimes get out of bed in the morning and do four pieces before going to work.

I lacked any desire to create something that would simply sit on a table or hang on a wall. My passions were reserved for functional art — creating something that would be aesthetically pleasing or even delightful but that a person could still use.

Waitressing is hard work, but I would tell people, “Being a waitress is the easier softer way for me.” It was physically demanding but a waitress simply had to carry plates and was never required to “step up to the plate.” I didn’t have to face the possibility of failure.

Getting Down to Business

I attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise (FIDM) both in its San Francisco and Los Angeles campuses.

Finally throwing caution to the wind, in 1999 I started my own purse design and manufacturing company, and spent seven years living and running my business as the token white person in a Hispanic neighborhood in downtown Los Angeles.

The vigor of the place seemed to flow through my life. I loved my neighbors, and loved my huge apartment in an elegant brownstone! I drank from the humanity that swarmed around me and from the creative energies that enveloped me day-by-day.

By 2003 my 2-bedroom apartment was filled with Thai ladies doing handbags. There were purses everywhere. Finally, the only clear area in the apartment was my bed, so I awoke one morning and thought, “I have to get out of here.”

I moved myself and the women who were working for me into an area near Pico and Western. The noise pollution was impossible at that location, however, and I would find myself screaming at customers on the phone as I attempted to be heard above the metropolitan roar going on just outside my office window.

One day, in desperation I called an old family friend, named Kimmie Solano, who lived in Moss Landing. “Do you know of any place available where you are?” In ten minutes I was speaking with a real estate agent. I drove up here the next day, looked at the building, and a month later was moved in.

The move was a great wrench both physically and spiritually. I had to break down the production facility, of course, and then transport and reassemble everything at my new location. Worst of all, I couldn’t talk any of my workers into moving with me. They all had social connections in LA that they were unwilling to sever. It was hard to say goodbye to those dear people who were like family to me.

It was difficult to start my business back up without them, of course, and the first year was a tough time of transition. I never regretted making the move, however. I had needed a better quality of life than Southern California could offer. The psychic changes I experienced were wonderful! I had found the stress-free environment that I needed.

Moss Landing, however, is an unlikely place to set up a fancy purse factory. It isn’t exactly renowned as the Fashion Capital of the World. In my mind the place had one thing in common with New York City, however, because I came to believe that “If I can make it here I can make it anywhere.”

A great advantage for my business stemmed from the women who lived in Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach, Montera, Los Gatos, Salinas, and other places around this area. Many of these women welcomed my products with delight and pleasure.

A lot of my business is based upon word of mouth, and my Coastal California fan base has been growing from one woman to another ever since I got here.

One of the great parts of this move was discovering extremely talented local artists to work for me. These women are gold! They love their work and share with me a passion for creating my beautiful purses.

My Bags

My unadorned handbags are made in a factory to my specifications and combine form and function even before I begin to embellish them. I have spent a lot of energy on the basic design and ergonomics of each bag. Is it really easy to use? Can a woman put things into and take things out easily? How easy is it to open?

When my mom developed arthritis in her fingers I used to have her open my bags. I figured if she could easily open them, then anybody could.

As a result of my careful research, the construction of my bags has grown increasingly more fine-tuned over the years.

The integrity of my product remains high. I never compromise on quality, but continue to devise ever-better ways to combine form with function — making each bag a perfect blend of usability and art.

A consistent thread in my bag designs is a blend of ethnicities — especially Asian. I don’t do things like Scotty dogs or Southwestern. I do what resonates with me. I look for themes that are aesthetic and timeless.

Some of my motifs date back to the 17th century. Mandarin nobles, for example, would loosely stitch a beautifully embroidered square on their clothes as a symbol of their status in society. I might put a copy of one of these over a design taken from a Turkish Carpet, and then edge it with a leopard skin pattern to draw the design elements together.

My handbags, in fact, live a charmed existence. The most beautiful women in the world carry my bags throughout the world. A typical client is an ageless woman who has been taking care of herself — both mind and body. She is a traveler. She is ready for growth and adventure. Ready, perhaps, for romance.

Around the World and Back to Moss Landing

I could live anywhere in the world and do my business, I suppose, but Monterey County is the best place I know. And I’m a world traveler so this is an educated judgment on my part. Every year I travel to Hong Kong, which is my home away from home. I do a lot of my sourcing in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. Small warrens are crowded with every kind of latch, clasp, zipper, etcetera that you can imagine. I look at materials that I could make my bags out of including pigskins, cowhides, and exotic skins. I can find anything. The experience is sometimes overwhelming but always satisfying.

I periodically travel Viet Nam from the North to the South. Hue is nice, but Hanoi is a magical city with its mixture of French and Vietnamese cultures. The people in Viet Nam are amazingly gracious — they always hand you things with both hands, and then throw in a deep bow, and a touch of affection on your shoulder. Women walk hand-in-hand and men walk shoulder touching shoulder.

This year I traveled to Japan. The whole esthetic that I found bursting throughout Japan simply blew my socks off. I was repeatedly astounded at how the simplicity and understated elegance of the Japanese design sense juxtaposes itself so effortlessly upon the neon culture and youth movement running rampant in that country. My travels serve to open my design senses. I am always finding fresh ideas. Art degenerates to mechanics if the ideas ever grow stale. We’re just getting started. We’ve got great ideas for the future!

I love Monterey. I walked on the beach the other day thinking “I’m the luckiest girl in the world!”

I’m doing art together with a crew of wonderful people! I have a great sales staff! Mimi Desmond, my Operations Officer, is just wonderful! Sales keep flooding in.

“It takes a village to raise a child,” they say. Well, I’ve found that it takes a village to make a purse, as well. And I’ve got a village at Stella Page Designs — a community of wonderful people who are working with me for our mutual success and for the love of the beautiful objects d’art that we create together.

For more information about Stella Page Design call 831-633-5503 or go to www.stellapage.com.