Cinnamon Cooper: A Favor Grows Into a Handbag Business
When Cinnamon Cooper was first asked to make something for a fundraiser that a friend was having she wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea. Little did she know that this simple favor would grow into a thriving handbag business: Poise.cc.
“I wasn’t feeling very creative at the time but told her I would sew something,” said Cooper. “I’d complained to another friend that I couldn’t really find a bag that I liked when I’d gone shopping and she told me to make one. So I thought about what I wanted and through a lot of trial and error, emphasis on the error, I ended up with something that I thought was okay. The night of the fundraiser my bag sold for more than I expected it to and several other nonprofit organizers gave me their card and asked me to make a bag for their organization. I was delighted.”
Cooper, a self-taught designer, learned the ins and outs of handbag design by tearing apart pre-made bags to see how they were put together and by studying sewing patterns. Cooper admits that she made several mistakes along the way, the biggest one involving buying bulk fabric that wasn’t suitable for making handbags.
“Before I learned that I could buy samples of fabric for testing, I bought bolts and bolts of fabric because they were pretty,” said Cooper. “And then I began working with them and realized that they weren’t very stable or durable and wore out in an awful manner. But thanks to eBay I’ve divested most of that fabric, at a loss, and am now much choosier about my fabric choices.”
One area that Cooper prides herself at, though, is making bags for individuals rather than for the masses. “My most proud moment was when a friend came to me and said that his wife didn’t carry her asthma inhaler with her because it got dirty and lost in her bag. So I made a pocket that was specifically sized for it and easily accessible. When he came back to me a few months later and said that she’d had and attack that would have been much, much worse if she’d not had her inhaler, I was delighted.”
Cooper crafts her wares using an industrial Juki and a Rowenta steamer. She currently crafts her bags part-time but would love to be able to see her business grow to a full-time venture. She has recently hired a contract sewer and hopes to make enough bags to be able to showcase them in local boutiques and shops. In a year and a half she hopes to have enough production capabilities to start attending wholesale shows.
For now, though, Cooper sales the majority of her handbags at shows close to her home in Chicago, Illinois and through her website www.poise.cc/shop.
