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Key Takeaways Patricia Nash built her namesake brand at age 50 after discovering a bag as old as she was in her mother’s closet and realizing that handbags could carry powerful memories.
Her “affordable luxury” formula is to use full-grain leather and high craftsmanship while stripping out most traditional marketing margin, giving that value back to customers in lower price points.
She scaled to around $100 million in annual revenue by combining unique assortments for each retail partner and high-visibility sales through HSN and QVC.
In 2010, when Patricia Nash helped move her mother out of the house she’d lived in for 50 years, she found the handbag that would change her life — and her career. In the back of a closet sat an old vintage wrap bag, a gift from Nash’s grandfather to her mother.
It had been carried and cherished for half a century, but when Nash opened the bag, she was struck not only by how the leather had aged beautifully but also by the craftsmanship and emotional weight of the object.
“I just was like, that’s what I gotta do,” she tells Entrepreneur in a new interview. “I got to have a brand that captures all of that, craftsmanship, those memories of our past, and add more function to it…and make it affordable.”
Nash had spent 25 years in the accessories industry, often licensing and designing for other brands, but she still hadn’t found the emotional anchor for her own label.
Patricia Nash. Credit: Patricia Nash Designs
Discovering her mother’s bag convinced her that handbags could be powerful vessels for memory. “Wouldn’t you like to have that bag that you like and you see it and it’s beautiful and it has great value, but it also reminds you of something that warms your heart?” she says.
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