 |
| (Founders: Sanna Kantola and Bruno Beaugrand) |
“LUMI means snow in the
Finnish language. The snowflake being a real symbol of creativity and beauty,
no two exactly alike.”
Lumi was founded in New York City, by designers, Sanna Kantola and
Bruno Beaugrand. During the millennium they were celebrating in Europe and came
across a felt factory in Finland. Both, Sanna and Bruno started making felt
hats and bags with added leather and details which lead to the birth of Lumi. Today Lumi is sold all over the
world selling in over 25 countries, in department stores, speciality stores and
boutiques. Talking with Sanna, she shares how the love for fashion inspired her
to enter the fashion realm.
“I
always wanted to work in a creative field since I was a little girl. In the
beginning, my dream was to become an architect, but I soon realized that I
wanted to work with people and their looks, and so my love story with fashion
design began.”
Sanna
was born in Finland and studied in both Helinski and Paris in the 90’s. Once
Sanna had graduated she worked at numerous Finnish magazines and interned at a Paris for trend consulting company, Promostyl, she also worked for designer
Louis Féraud. Sanna later became a freelance designer and decided accessories
was the area she wanted to design for.
“I
initially studied to become a Fashion Designer, and I have a Masters Art degree
in Fashion. However, during my studies, I started to work as a freelance designer
for a Finnish handbag company and I also designed cell phone cases for Nokia
(back in the 90's when Nokia cell phones were still popular).
“This
inspired me to concentrate on accessories versus clothing. Once I moved to New
York, all head hunters were immediately interested in my experience in
designing handbags and cell phone cases and that is how I started my career as
a accessories designer. I am glad I did, I like the fact that accessories are
more of a niche product compared to clothing, and handbags in particular are
related somewhere in between fashion and industrial design.“
Sanna has collaborated with designers, brands
and magazines, proving her eco-friendly products are a huge hit with customers.
With her hard work and dedication to Lumi,
Sanna discusses how Lumi’s materials are created into high quality handbags.
“Currently,
over 60% of our Lumi products are made in vegetable-tanned leather and other
sustainable materials, and we are striving to become 100% sustainable in the
future. Nowadays, one can achieve amazing colours with vegetable-tanned
leathers. Being eco-friendly is an advantage and with people being more and
more conscious of their everyday sources; the understanding of eco-friendly
materials that are made by hand have also risen, and consumers are even looking
for products with a more natural look”.
Lumi’s
products come in countless colours and sizes but Lumi’s best seller the
‘Spermarket Bag’ is a huge hit with customers and Sanna explains why.
In
stores, Lumi has a new collection of
scented home accessories called Lumi
Scent, as Sanna shares:
“It is
a complete new line of scented home accessories: scented candle, scented soap,
scented bath oil and scented bath salt. All products are hand-made in Sweden
with natural materials and packaged inside old pharmacy-style brown glass
bottles, and a unique splint basket which you can use for home decoration or
storage after. The four scent options - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter - are
inspired from the four distinctive seasons of Finland and nature.
“In
August, the Lumi Shoe collection is
also coming out and we will open a brand new Shoe Store in the heart of Helsinki!”
After
fourteen years building and branding Lumi
accessories, I ask Sanna what is the key secret to owning a successful brand.
Photographs: Bruno and Sanna taken by Merja Young
SS14 catalogue pictures taken by: Sebastian Johannson
Follow links for more information:
No comments:
Post a Comment