Sorry for my absence.

I am sorry for my absence the last days. I was really stressed by bookkeeping and tons of new bags arriving here end of last week. The fiscal authorities breathing down my neck, because I was already 2 days late with the sales tax report and two huge boxes of bags from Property of… in the shop that I couldn’t unpack because of the book-keeping… A big thank you to Nadja, Katrin’s sister, who came by to unpack the bags on Thursday evening.Today I finally managed to put price tags on the bags and place some of them in the shop.

I don’t know exactly how many hours I worked last week, but I think it must have been about 60 hours. I was really exhausted on Saturday evening and couldn’t wait so spend a relaxed evening in bed with my book and sleep long on Sunday. Thank god Anna is recovered and will replace me in the shop tomorrow morning. I really need to buy food! I even don’t have any pasta at home.

(pic from Marsupialia)

Nice contacts at Premium

After my very funny weekend (see the pillow fight) with a very special person I refer to my last week experiences at Premium here in Berlin. Premium is a smaller fashion fair with more exclusive and smaller brands that takes place during Bread and Butter and Fashion Week in Berlin. Compared to the Bread and Butter I like Premium a lot, because there I can find more interesting brands for our shop. I am not looking for the huge companies represented at Bread and Butter. I look for smaller brands and personal contacts like Fredsbruder and Property of. I really enjoyed talking to these people, enjoy their new products and love to work with them.

Constanze Alef, designer and owner of Fredsbruder

Fredsbruder Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 collection

Property of… Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 collection. I love their way to present their bags: The huge hooks are fantastic.

(pics by Marsupialia)

Exploring Singapore

Last week I spent in Singapore for holiday (poor Katrin had to stay in the shop alone) and I combined this fun trip with a visit at Property of… to place an order for Spring/Summer 2010. It was great to see their offices and showroom and to get to know the really fantastic Property of people. I found out that they made clothes before they started the Property of bag business in Europe, USA and Japan. Besides the bag business they have their own shop called ‘Project Shop’ in Singapore combined with a café. And they have two restaurants in Singapore calles PS Café as well. And the best thing is: we were invited to drink a bottle of champagne in one of their restaurants. We spent a very nice evening on the terrace of PS Café in Harding road with a nice view on tropical forest looking trees: nice ambiance, nice food and a bottle of delicious champagne. Thanks Peter!

(pic from PS Café; linked to its source)

May I introduce you to the Miller family

After I’ve introduced you the Tom family last week, it’s time for you to get to know the Miller family of Property of…. today. I like the Miller family a lot, because it has the same name than I have. Well ok, my name is a bit more German written with an ‘ü’ instead of the ‘i’ in Miller, but it almost sounds the same. Millers are made of a slightly glossy heavy nylon twill that is of course very easy to clean, robust and lightweight. Finished with some leather details Miller is the perfect laptop-bag for frequent travellers (men as well as women) who love to have a chic bag.

And the Miller kid is a very talented multi-pocket day bag.

(pics from Marsupialia)

May I introduce you to the Tom Family

Did you ever look for a bag for a man: a bag for a man that is not tooo sporty like those from Crumpler or Freitag are and that is not so much business bag like a normal Samsonite or a Tumi work bag? That’s a really hard job. Not all men want to have colourful, sporty bags or black laptop bags like management consultants usually use. That’s why we are so happy to having found the bags from Property of…, a Singapore based bag company that produces bags for men with a well designed, serious and sporty character in high quality.

Today I would like to introduce you to the Tom family of Property of… which was one part of the big parcel we’ve got from Property of… recently. These are bags with lots of inner and outer pockets made of easy to clean rough waxed cotton cloth with nice details and straps in leather,  that are available in black and moss (a greyish olive green) at Beuteltiere again. There is daddy Tom, the big travel bag, mummy Tom, the medium sized work bag, and child Tom, the small day bag, for everyday use.

The Tom family

Tom Travel bag in moss

Tom Work bag in black

Tom Day bag in black

Leather straps

(pics by Marsupialia)

Redecorating the shop

On Saturday had quite a tough day at the shop: we removed our desk and the computer from the shop, put it into the storage room, dismantled the lamp hanging over the desk, installed our brand-new tables made by our favourite carpenter Sven and redecorated the whole shop. Sounds like this has been a BIG day! Yes it was. And besides we kept up selling activities and hosted several very nice surprise guests from Aachen, Katrin’s home, and old friend from school who I haven’t seen for 9 years now and a friends sister from Holland with her two little twins. Well … I think our Friends and family network works well.

But now see how the redecorated shop looks like:

Our brand new tiny little tables in the middle of the shop.

Our table full of men’s products form Property of… in front of the cherry blossom wall.

Thirtyfour leather bracelet made of chicken leather on an Eigenart scarf called Libelle (dragonfly).

(pics by Marsupialia)

A birthday present for Tim

Last week we made somebody happy. We gave a present to my roommate Tim, because it was his birthday and because he made some professional photos of our shop. See him unwrapping his  black Tom day bag from Property of…

(pics from Marsupialia)