Since launching its brand in 2005, Telfar Clemens has gone against the grain in a luxury industry that caters to the privileged few. The Liberian American from Queens, NY, has blazed his own trail by designing an inclusive unisex collection each season. The word ‘inclusive’ is a bit overused these days, but it’s been a staple of this brand’s vocabulary from the start with its mantra ‘It’s not for you, it’s for everyone’. With this vision, Clemens was awarded the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund, which recognizes emerging talent, in 2017 and was named 2020 Accessories Designer of the Year at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. He owes this prestigious victory to one of his most popular creations: the Shopping Bag. Launched in 2014, the bag propelled it into the limelight and was a hit with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Solange Knowles and Bella Hadid.

A bag for everyone

Dubbed the Bushwick Birkin – a nod to the famous Hermès It bag – because of its affordable price ($ 190 for the small version and up to around $ 325 for the large) and its iconic style, the leather bag. synthetic was created to be more accessible than most of the designer bags on the market. Inspired by Bloomingdale’s shopping bags and adorned with the Telfar logo (the designer’s initials drawn by one of his teachers when he was a kid in school), it comes in three sizes and different shades and sells out immediately every time. the virtual shelves of the online store. In August 2020, the website launched the Bag Safety Program, a day-long event that allowed anyone who coveted the precious bag to grab one, although they had to wait a few months before it arrived. This democratization goes against the grain in an industry that typically uses scarcity to fuel desire.