The portfolio industry has been drastically replaced over the past decade, from an era of luxury handbags with “It” status to the proliferation of independent accessory brands at new costs that owe much of their good fortune to Instagram. Designer Gunes Mutlu saw this replacement first hand, launching her own line, Mehry Mu, from her local Istanbul, Turkey, in 2008. At the time, he had just introduced a trendy e-commerce site for which he had trouble locating handbags. Sell.
“It was the high-end handbags, or Tory Burch and Michael Kors, against which I have nothing against, but there was a small hole in the cool category,” he tells me on the phone. “I sought to fill that hole.”
The line was encouraged through Mutlu’s education and travel. He studied psychology at the university in the United States before returning to Turkey to begin a career in the media. He followed in the footsteps of his father, a journalist who became a newspaper owner, who began promoting classified ads before participating in the launch of Turkish editions of major fashion magazines such as InStyle and Madame Figaro. “I’d be happy with the way you create content,” Mutlu says of his father. It was at this point that he observed the lack of local fashion e-commerce features and sought to do something business. The siege ultimately did not last, in part because of the 2009 economic crisis, but the stock exchanges did.
Mehry Mu Fey Mini
Photo courtesy of Mehry Mu
“Being a Turk and a connoisseur of the United States, I’ve traveled all my life, so I sought to combine a fantasy between East and West,” she says of the line’s inspiration. It describes the fusion of “ethnic” fabrics from Istanbul’s wonderful bazaar with trendy Western details. She sought eclectic touches that “still spoke to the fresh woman.” Everything is produced in Turkey with locally sourced materials, adding rattan, velvet, rope, herb stones and more.
After building the logo locally, Mehry Mu called himself up internationally, promoting influential stores like Net-a-Porter, Bergdorf Goodman, Shopbop and more. His biggest hit yet, introduced in 2016, has been the Fey, a flavor that combines Instagram’s favorite interior design material, cane wicker, and his favorite bag shape, the box, into a photogenic singles piece now made into a variety of fabrics. sizes and colors.
“It was Mark Cross’s cardboard bags when I first designed [mine] for the first time,” she says. “[The Fey] is a very affordable case for the knowledge related to it, with rattan. Subconsciously, it’s anything you like because we all love French chairs, this old atmosphere, but it’s something absolutely new. built the total collection on that first bag.”
Leset, with his beloved bases through celebrities, is a label to follow
Mini Box of Rattan Mehry Mu Luna
Photo courtesy of Mehry Mu
The Fey and its ramifications, like the Moon, have earned a lot of love from influencers and celebrities, adding Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Roberts, Busy Phillips and Laura Harrier. These styles are also distinctive, making them easy to recognize and relatively affordable. A forged plantation strategy means very little without those other points in place, as you can probably see through the founders of the competition such as Cult Gaia and By Far. And Mutlu has continued to expand its diversity thanks to this successful strategy. It’s been more than Instagram for her.
“In fact, I’m grateful to social media for providing us with opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have as a small independent brand, but when I design, I don’t need the bags to just bags of toys or photographed items that don’t “do you any good,” he says. “Of course, social media, those beautiful photos of celebrities or influential people drinking coffee with their bags, really help. These other people get many gifts; there are so many brands, especially in the category of fresh handbags, so we are very pleased to have been selected and photographed, we are divided.”
Despite the appeal and attention of primary stores on social media, Mehry Mu has faced its fair share of challenges, overcoming the 2009 currency crisis, suffering to keep costs affordable, facing the existing pandemic and economic recession.
Mehry Mu Autumn 2020 Agatha
Photo courtesy of Mehry Mu
“To tell you the truth, it’s very difficult to paint pictures with small margins,” he says of his prices. “If you sell wholesale, if you sell to Net-a-Porter and Bergdorf Goodman and all the stores, your wholesale business suffers.” However, it remains firm that buyers do not spend their entire salary on bags.
“No matter how much cash you have, you shouldn’t spend that much money on your bags. We love suitcases, smart quality deserves some kind of investment,” but, he says, “I’m passionate about survival despite low margins, and making consumers more directly if necessary.”
Although Mehry Mu has its own e-commerce and Mutlu is aware of the demanding situations facing classic stores and the potential disadvantages of running with them, he still firmly believes in what wholesale can offer a small brand.
“On a non-public level, it’s smart to be validated through those amazing outlets with incredible healing and I know they’re having disruption right now, massive economic upheavals like the rest of the world, so it’s vital to help them as good, because they’ve helped us in the past,” he says. He likes to see his pieces photographed magnificently or advertised alongside other brands he admires. On his retail strategy, he said: “We’re not going to stop trading our wholesale accounts, but we’re definitely going to strengthen our DTC.” This is one of the things that she and her team targeted for the pandemic and it was worth it, as sales developed exponentially despite the closure. “People buy bags, even in the lockdown,” he learned with relief.
Mehry Mu Autumn 2020 Cha Cha
Photo courtesy of Mehry Mu
Mutlu says she feels positive about this upcoming market season anyway. While many other brands are reducing their offerings by spring 2021, it is expanding the collection. As a component of this, it focuses on new social initiatives, such as donating a component of sales to young Turks in need, especially those over the age of 18 and therefore excluded from local government aid. It is also running to expand the brand’s vegan offering, looking for cactus-based alternatives. Looking further away, hope one day to become shoes and jewelry.
Its newest styles, the Cha Cha range, are made of woven golden rope, adding egg and central shapes: whimsical, instagrameable, with a little more.
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