Suzie Eggleton sees creative possibilities in the strangest places.
Instead of using leather, the designer uses plant-based materials like cactus skin and apple pulp to make her handbags.
Eggleton has a background in film costuming and the fashion industry, but says she’s always wanted to have her own brand.
In 2017, she started handbag business Velvet Heartbeat in a workshop in her home in Sandringham, Auckland, after realising how much she had loved working with leather when she worked in the film costume industry.
"I wanted to see what I could come up with using plant-based materials instead of animal leather," she says.
Designer Suzie Eggleton designs and makes all the brand's bags. (Image: Velvet Heartbeat)
A tricky balance
Eggleton's challenge was to find materials that looked and felt like leather but were actually made from plants.
Her research led her to source unusual materials from the Philippines, Spain, Italy and Mexico. She uses cactus skin, corn, pineapple leaves and apple pulp.
Eggleton is passionate about innovation in plant-based fabrics, but it’s a tricky balance.
“II do struggle, because I’m a small business,” she says. “Financially and logistically, getting hold of these innovative fabrics can be really difficult.”
She's found that everyone is partial to a good bag, so her customer base is varied and broad.
“It's hard to pin down my customer demographic,” she says. “I do try to keep the styling quite mainstream and adaptable to anybody's wardrobe, so I think anybody who's in the mindset of shopping more sustainably or wants to try an alternative to leather would be attracted to my brand.”
She designs and makes every bag, wallet and purse she sells.
“I don't really work in the seasonal way that most of the fashion brands do, because I find that quite wasteful,” she says.
“Everyone can read the writing on the wall and know that sustainability is what a lot of customers are looking for.”
A slow burn
Eggleton describes her business journey as a “slow burn” because she's found it difficult at times to navigate the recent chaotic business environment.
“I was hitting a good stride just before 2020 and had decided to kick it up a notch and really try and get myself out there more,” she says.
“But then the pandemic hit, which threw a spanner in the works.”
Fearing the worst, she was surprised to find many Kiwis supported small businesses in the early days of the pandemic.
“Everybody got so jazzed on buying and supporting local businesses that everything just took off,” she says.
“I had also just gotten my hands on some cactus leather and, weirdly, I was one of the first brands in the world to start producing bags made of it.
"So, when people did an internet search for cactus leather, Velvet Heartbeat was one of the first links to come up, which really helped with business.”
She found it challenging dealing with international orders from countries ranging from Estonia to the US during covid-19 lockdowns, but global sales remain a big boon for the business.
This year she's seen a slowdown in sales as inflation bites.
“People have less money at the moment, so luxuries are one of the things that suffer. Buying a handbag isn't a top priority for people.”
Room to grow
Eggleton is confident she just has to hang in there until the business environment improves.
“I think the challenging thing for small businesses in this era is not having a reference point. What's going to happen? What does the rest of the pandemic look like?” she says.
“How do you pivot and adapt to make the most of how things are at the moment – or is this just how life is, forever?”
Once business picks up, she’d like to move out of her home workshop into a showroom and hire permanent staff.
“I don't need to be a mega-corporation, but it would be nice to grow a little more,” she says.
“I just make things that people want to buy, for as long as they want to buy them. Every now and again, I’ll just drop an item off the list or get inspired to create a new one and add it to the shop.”
