From Financial Advisor to Handbag Inventor | Emily Blumenthal & Penny Crook
episode
Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons
30 min
1 speaker
5 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
you make mistakes, but you've got to learn from those. And every mistake I learn, I try to find the positive. Every negativity, hey, I had some money stolen, but I found the manufacturer today. You know, just a little. Yeah. But that's how I found my current manufacturer. And he makes my reversible purse perfectly. So had it not been for that bad situation, something good would not have come out of it, which is finally finding my manufacturer that can make it perfectly. And we went through four different manufacturers before getting there. So out of something bad, something good happened.
Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship, and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Welcome, Miss Penny Crook.
Good morning. Thank you.
Welcome to Handbag Designer 101 Handbags of Dano Handbags, or just so we can be clear, D-A-N-E-A-U-L-T, because you're, as you said, your daddy was French, which I'm into.
He was 100% French, and I apologize. There's a lot of vowels in my maiden name. Did he speak French? He did. He did. Yes. Did you grow up speaking French? I did not. My French teacher told him not to teach me because he was teaching me slang and not textbooks. So, yeah. So, I had two years of French in high school, but I don't speak it today, but...
What were the biggest manufacturing mistakes Penny faced and how did she finally find the right factory?
Isn't that funny? Like how things evolve or devolve that, you know, back in the day, they would tell people like, hide your roots, don't do that. And all the things you could have put on your LinkedIn profile, had you known, like, I'm fluent. Like, no.
Exactly.
Now I'm fluent in Southern. Oh my God. But your accent is so darling. It's just, it's such a delight. So Penny, let's go back just because I, you know, we have so many people on Instagram And they have such different journeys. And my school semester just finished. When this runs, we're recording this in the end of May. So my teaching semester finished. This may run closer to August. But part of what we talk about in my entrepreneurship class is Is that sometimes life is not a linear journey, especially in terms of starting a new career, a new business, a new brand. And I think there's some joy in knowing that for better or for worse. Mm-hmm. that having this opportunity to begin again and again and again, it just gives us some hope, even with learning curves, that there are good things to come.
Even if you hate your day job or get stuck in your day-to-day, there's still an opportunity to have a life pivot. So what did you do in your previous life, Ms. Crook?
Oh, that's an interesting question. I often say that I am not a fashionista. I had no business being in this industry, but it was a calling. It really was. I was a financial advisor for many, many years. So I did, you know, stocks, bonds, mutual funds. How did that happen? How did you get sucked into that? So as the story goes, my dad passed away and my parents were married 66 years. And I was helping my mom clean up closets when we found a purse that he had given her. And I kid you not, when I held it in my arms, I had goosebumps and my hair was sticking up. And I knew, I'm like, I'm supposed to be doing something with this. I don't know what, but something. So I just asked my mom if I can borrow it. I took it home and I just, you know, talked to the Lord and talked to my daddy, of course.
How did a sentimental handbag inspire Penny Crook to start a reversible bag brand?
And just like, okay, what am I supposed to be doing? And then we woke up with the idea of the reversible purse. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to do it. I don't even know if it's possible. But the affirmation was that strong that I knew I had to try. So here we are today. We have a patent. on a reversible purse, like nothing you've seen before. So that's the story. Like I was in sales. I was a financial advisor.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:50
2
What were the biggest manufacturing mistakes Penny faced and how did she finally find the right factory?
1:50–4:10
3
How did a sentimental handbag inspire Penny Crook to start a reversible bag brand?
4:10–11:29
4
What was Penny’s career before becoming a handbag inventor and why did she leave finance?
11:29–12:26
5
How did the idea for the patented reversible purse originate after her dad’s passing?
12:26–30:29
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons
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