Ultimate Business Handbags - The Grand Career Tote

Today we are celebrating the launch of the ultimate women's leather business handbags, the Grand Career Tote, with it's designer, Angelina Hart. Angelina and I sat down to discuss the genesis of her new design, her inspirations and what she hopes to achieve with her leather business handbags.

Angelina Hart Background and Inspiration

JD- Since this is your first designer leather handbag, can you tell our readers a bit about your background, where you are coming from and how you got into designing women’s luxury products?

 AH - I grew up in a very European influenced home. Being half German and half Yugoslavian, I had a lot of exposure to different languages, cultures and food. This inspired me to travel and explore the world. I was also very adventurous growing up. I began riding horses at the age of four. I also developed a passion for fast Italian sports cars, motorcycles, flying airplanes, scuba diving, surfing, archery and shooting guns. I've been called the female James Bond.

In addition to my adventurous side, I also had a passion for the luxuries of life. My father always taught me that if you buy the very best of something that you can afford and you take care of it, it will last a lifetime. I developed a deep appreciation for quality, design, and style. After purchasing decades of luxury handbags, I decided to create my own. I drew inspiration from the top designers in Paris and Italy to create my own line of luxury handbags.

JD - I understand you were a collector for many years. How has that affected your designs?

AH - I have always loved leather handbags. That is my weakness, some women are addicted to shoes, but I am addicted to handbags. My closet looks like a luxury boutique. I have a wide collection of bags from Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Furla, Fendi, Prada, Givenchy, Hermes, the list goes on. They are like beautiful pieces of art that I can wear. I appreciate their style and quality. There was always a little something that I wanted to change on those leather handbags.

For example, the metal zipper teeth on the interior pocket where you store a cellphone was very problematic. The metal teeth would scratch my phone, chip my manicure or catch on my ring. I felt that the pocket could be improved to avoid this problem. I started a list of fixes and improvements. I took everything from this list and created my own line. Designing leather handbags is a lifelong dream come true. I wanted to combine my designs with unparalleled quality and introduce my new luxury line to the world.

Influencing the Designs Business Handbags

JD - What would you say are your biggest influencers?

AH - I am influenced by glamour. I’m influenced by timeless and classic style that will never go out of fashion. I am inspired by the era of the 20’s, the Gatsby style. When men and women dressed to the nine all the time. I love the idea of women dressing like ladies and men dressing like gentlemen. I look back at old movies and television shows for inspiration. I am very influenced by classic and timeless fashion mixed with the modern active woman.

I love classic fashion, for example, a dress worn by Marilyn Monroe that you can still wear today. Design of a certain quality never goes out of style. And I also draw on my hobbies for inspiration. My passion for yachting, Italian cars and dressage has inspired some of my upcoming handbags. There are certain aesthetic elements of those hobbies that translate into the design of my handbags. I want that to draw my customers into my world, to share my experiences and hopefully inspire women to adventurous.

JD - I see you travel quite a bit. Do you find that specific places influence your designs? How have you been influenced by locations?

AH - I love to travel and I have been to so many places all over the world. One of my favorite places is Monaco. I would move there tomorrow if I could. On my first trip, I went to the Casino de Monte-Carlo and was taken back by all the beauty that surrounded me. As I walked into the hotel, I felt like I was in a James Bond movie. I was waiting to see him pull up in his Aston Martin.

The view from the stunning Salle Blanche was my favorite. As I was playing Punto Banco, I felt so inspired and stimulated by everything around me. It was a memorable time of elegance and inspiration.

JD - So all that adds up to the Grand Career Tote.

The Grand Career Tote - The Ultimate Women's Business Handbag?

Why should a woman choose the Grand Career Tote? What makes it the ultimate leather business handbag?

AH - For many years I carried a designer bag and a briefcase at the same time. I felt like an alpaca. I was so delighted by my handbag but very embarrassed by my business bag. Business bags in the past have always been very masculine and ugly. Or they were feminine but of such poor quality.

I wanted to create the ultimate business handbag for career women: A perfect combination of beauty from the fashion world and all of the organization and functionality of a business tote. I wanted a bag that could transition from daytime to evening. This business handbag is the only bag you will need.

JD - The interior is very unique. Can you tell us about that?

AH - The interior was inspired by some of my favorite hotels in Europe. The striped satin interior is reminiscent of some of the softest and most luxurious sheets. The light golden interior compliments the beautiful cream accents on the exterior of the bag.

Having a light and bright interior makes it easier to find items in your bag. The elegance of the liner is something that separates a business handbag like the Grand Career Tote from other business tote out there. There is a level of glamor in the execution of this bag that is unique.

JD - The bag seems extremely light, yet is still structured. How did you achieve this.

AH - As a business handbag, I wanted it to have structure, yet be lightweight and padded inside. I sourced special foam to create the structure that still allowed the bag to be lightweight. This was much more expensive an option to choose vs. what many other manufactures do. A business handbag has to be pretty and preform too. I can’t stand handbags that don’t have any structure at all or that weight too much for what they are.

You put all of your things in a bag like that and it becomes a huge mess. You might as well just carry around a trash bag! I think there should be a certain amount of organization with a business handbag. We need quick and easy access to our most common items, like keys and cell phones. Organization is important to professional, successful women.

JD- Visually, the design seems not to follow any trends. Was this a conscious choice? If so, why?

AH - Yes. I strive to design handbags that are not trendy. I prefer designs that are classic and timeless. I want my designs to have an eternal life. I have some Chanel bags that are over fifteen years old and still look modern today. I believe that if you buy a luxury handbag, it should never go out of style. It’s much harder to do something timeless, than something trendy. I like the challenge of that. Getting the Grand Career Tote right was certainly a challenge.

Fans of Angelina Hart

JD - Who do you see becoming fans of your brand? Is there a certain type of women you hope to reach?

AH - Since the Grand Career Tote is the ultimate business handbag, I can see professional women who are tired of carrying a fashion handbag and a business tote becoming huge fans. I can also see women who are a bit rebellious and think outside the box getting behind the brand as well. We’re not the European design houses. We’re something else, something different and something new with old world values and timeless design. A woman can make a statement carrying an Angelina Hart handbag and look amazing doing it.

JD- Are there any celebrities you’d like to design for?

AH - There are several actresses I would love to design for. They all have such different styles. Amy Adams, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson are a few of my favorite actresses. They all possess a timeless beauty, classic Hollywood. If I had to choose one to start with, it would be my all time favorite, Joan Collins. She is a fashion icon, forever classic and forever Alexis Carrington Colby. I loved her as Alexis in Dynasty! She has been an inspiration to me.

JD - So the Grand Career Tote your women’s leather laptop bag and the first piece of your bag collection. What should we be looking for next from Angelina Hart?

AH  - I have designed a series of handbags inspired by my adventurous lifestyle. The next handbag to be revealed is an equestrian inspired bag. There are also upcoming designs that are influenced by sailing and classic Ferraris. I can see doing additional business handbags as well.

"Business handbags have to be pretty and preform too"

The Best MacBook Pro Cases & iPad Pro Cases Turns 10

Happy Anniversary MacCase Premium Leather Collection!

One of the original members of the Premium Leather Collection from 2007: The Sleeves

2017 marks the 10 year anniversary of the launch of the Premium Leather Collection by MacCase. The Collection represents the best MacBook Pro cases and iPad Pro cases available. The Collection was ground breaking in that it reinvented the Apple-specific case market MacCase created nearly 10 years earlier.

Today we are once again speaking with Michael Santoro, Chief Creative Officer of MacCase, the architect of the premium leather concept. In this post we'll take a look back at the history of the line that represents the best MacBook Pro and iPad Pro cases.

JDK - Take us back 10 years. What was life like at MacCase in 2007?

MS - You have to go back later than that. The leather line launched in 2007 but the impetus to create something that the world had never seen before goes back to around 2005. We were the number one selling Apple specific case line at CompUSA for 3 years. CompUSA folds and we loose half of our revenue overnight. This kind of loss tends to make you very creative, very quickly.

JDK - So you are saying the leather line was born from necessity?

MS - That is part of the story. When I created the first ever Apple specific case, there wasn't much competition. This changed quickly. After nearly a decade, the market was crowded. Even though we were still doing very well, I was itching for that same excitement of when we had the place to ourselves. This combined with the loss of CompUSA pushed me to start thinking about a second act for MacCase.

The Genesis of a New Leather Line of MacBook Pro Cases

JKD - So what lead you to leather? Did you look at any other options?

MS - That is a good question because along with going upmarket, I also looked at going down market. I thought there would be a opportunity to bring high end design to ultra low price pieces. We even had the name for the line picked out, the branding, everything. I walked around with the ideas for the products in my head for a long time never putting pen to paper to get them out.

JKD - Why?

MS - I don't know. That happens sometimes. I sure songwriters have the same experience. You'll walk around with a melody or some lyrics in your head for a week and if you don't get them out they evaporate back into the ether from which they came. For this low cost models, they just never got out. It happens.

JKD - Did you have the ideas for the leather line in your head at the same time?

MS - Yes.

JKD - Wow, never a dull moment in that brain of your's huh?

MS - You have no idea, Jody (laughing).

JKD - So the low cost line never saw the light of day?

MS - No, but if you look at amazon and eBay, the Chinese manufactures pretty much did exactly what I envisioned. When we started, a basic nylon sleeve for a MacBook Pro was about $40. Now it's a lot less. I cannot speak to the quality of the stuff that is out there now at those super low price points, but that was the idea. My thinking about the direction of the market at that time was spot on.

JKD - So somewhere at this time the idea for the leather line springs forth. What was the difference in that idea vs. the low cost idea that made you take action?

Early concept for a two tone MacBook Pro leather sleeve

Being First Again

MS - Because I was going to get to so something first again. There was no premium, up market leather case line specifically for Apple in 2006. The disposability of nylon always bothered me. If you make a good quality leather piece it can last for decades.

Doing products that were more substantial had meaning to me. Doing upmarket, beautifully designed, beautifully crafted products that the world had not seen before is what designers live for. Knowing these products were going to be the best MacBook Pro cases available brought a resurgent sense of confidence and pride to our work.

JKD - How did you choose which forms factors or styles to include in the new leather line?

MS - That was probably the easiest part because we knew what was selling well on the nylon side. So we just took the styles that were hits for us in nylon and copied them in leather. Well, we didn't just copy them. We fused the new leather aesthetic with the form factors we knew were top sellers.

JKD - Yes, tell us about the visual vocabulary you developed that became the hallmark of the new leather line.

MS - Well, if you are going to make the best of something, you want people to be able to see that. In our case, we wanted to make the best leather MacBook Pro cases. How do you use design to get that message across? I needed a way to have the products speak for themselves. I wanted the vocabulary to be timeless. Our nylon models were never trendy so there was no way our leather line was going to be.

The New Look for the New Line of Leather MacBook Pro Cases

JKD - What did you ultimately come up with?

MS - Arcs. Whenever you bring curves into a design it tends to make the design more complex and interesting. They can get away from you so you have to be careful. But curves did 2 things for us: It showed the world we could cut leather, and when we used contrasting white thread to sew the curved panels, it showed the world we were serious about quality. It showed everyone we could sew.

It's really hard to do this stuff. You can't make the leather MacBook Pro cases or iPad Pro cases at the quality we do on a speed line. And you can't put a white thread through a black leather curved panel unless every stitch is perfect. This was the unspoken, visual language that was developed to let the world know that these were in fact the best leather MacBook Pro cases anyone had ever seen.

Ultra rare cream version of the MacCase Premium Leather Shoulder Bag

JKD - When the line launched you had 7 colors. Was that a bit ambitious?

MS - Of course. Making Apple laptop cases from really expensive leather for a market no one knew was there was ambitious too. It's all ambitious. That's the point. As an entrepreneur, ambition is the gas that keeps the engine running. Doing this line was as exciting as doing the first MacCase for the old iBook. It had the same kind of energy. That's the time to try stuff. 7 colors was over the top. So what?

JKD - Were there any colors of the original seven that you look back on now and thing, "What was I thinking?

MS - No, not at all. You have to try things. You never know how the market will react. We sold a lot of red, a lot of pink and a lot of chocolate that first year. Don't forget, we only had a few styles back in 2007. Nothing like all the styles we have today. Cream never did well but it was a cool color to have in the line. So was tan.

Tan looks great in photos. So even though some of the colors were not great sellers, they presented a new idea, the idea of upmarket, premium leather quality products for Apple portables to a world that had never seen that before. A beautiful tan of red will do that a lot more effectively than a black case will in a photo.

The Best MacBook Pro Cases

JKD - When did you realize the line was going to be a success? That your huge risk was paying off?

MS - Probably by the end of the first year. Sales we good and the interest was picking up. I was motivated to create more form factors, more styles and grow the line. It was the right line of products at the right time. Eventually we made up all the revenue we lost from Comp and then some. It's very rewarding to be sitting here with you now 10 years later knowing it's still going strong. From a very dark day in our history we responding in the most creative way possible and came back stronger than ever.

Many pieces from the original 2007 production are still being used today

JKD - Looking back now these 10 years, is there anyhting you are partially proud of about the line or what you have accomplished?

MS - I am proud that so many of the leather MacBook Pro cases and now, leather iPad Pro cases that we have produced are still in use today. Some pieces of the original launch from 2007 are still in use. That is pretty good for a $100 - 250 case.

I am proud how well we have brought the iPad Pro cases into the Premium Leather Collection to the point where we are probably going to be best known for them in the not to distant future.

I am proud of all the new customers we've brought on board. Marie Osmond recently placed a nice order with us. Last week, Ralph Lauren's organization purchased our Folios for their staff. That says a lot when an iconic design brand like Ralph Lauren is purchasing your products for their staff. That meant a lot to me.

Neil Diamond's road crew uses MacCase. Wherever Neil is in the world, if someone on the tour get's a new Apple portable, Stan (Neil Diamond's road manager) calls Debbie and we ship it to them. Lastly, actor Vince Lozano recently placed and order with us. Vince is best known for his work on the Pirates of the Caribbean.

 JKD - Lastly, looking back on the last 10 years and the success you've had, does this inspire you to come up with something else? A third act for MacCase?

MS - I would not say the anniversary is inspired me one way or the other. Boredom, Jody. Boredom inspires me. I get restless really easily and am always looking for the next thing.

JKD - Have you found it?

MS - Stay tuned......

 "You can't make the leather MacBook Pro cases or iPad Pro cases at the quality we do on a speed line"