There is a woman I think about every time I sit down to design.
She is juggling multiple things at once. Children, work, relationships, the grocery run that somehow ends up sandwiched between school pickup and an after work event. Her day is lined up from the second she wakes up. LIke me, she has very little time for herself, which is exactly why the things she chooses to bring into her life need to work hard. A bag that makes her feel put together on the outside, while handling everything her day throws at it on the inside. That is who I design for. Every single time.
I recently finished designing a whole batch of new styles. The new styles were less about designing something new and more about designing something necessary.
I reject the idea that we constantly need newness. So this time, I started with reflection. I thought about the women who had already bought from me and asked myself honestly, what else does she need? If she already has a Loop Tote, she does not need another mid-sized tote that just looks a little different. So I thought about her day. Her weekend. The in-between moments when the Loop Tote stays home.
I also thought about the women who came to my booth and left empty handed. Not because they didn't want something, but because I didn't have what they were looking for. So I thought about smaller pieces. Functional ones with a little personality. Items that could add some spunk to an everyday without sacrificing the purpose behind them.
Color came up too. I love soft earth tones, and that will never fully leave the line. But after doing a mini batch of a lime croc BFP Fanny and watching how people responded to it, I learned that people want color from me. So I challenged myself. I pushed past my comfort zone and tried to inject the line with some fun, without losing what makes KAEIU feel like KAEIU.
The hardest part of all of it is the balance between beauty and function. I never think of them as a choice between one or the other, because the whole ethos of this brand is that it has to be both. But making them coexist is genuinely difficult, especially when your design language lives on the minimal end of the spectrum. Every functional detail has to earn its place without disrupting the visual quiet of the bag. That tension is where most of my time goes.
Looking back at where the collection started and where it is now, the word that comes to mind is evolution.
Every version of these bags has been a build on the one before it. Small tweaks, quiet improvements, lessons learned from the previous batch. It is a lot like growing up. Every year you turn older, you are not starting over. You are adding to everything that came before. You look back and feel grateful that every previous version of you, the uncertain one, the learning one, the one who got it slightly wrong, brought you to exactly where you are standing now.
If you have been here from the beginning, thank you. You have been part of this story too.
With love,
Maria
Founder of KAEIU
The one who I design for... 👆🫣