Risky Biz Wristlet, Paint the Town Tote, and Mingle Mingle Mini are just a few of the cute and clever names Kelly Wynne Ferguson has created for her Kelly Wynne handbag line known for their bold prints and patterns. Her business has only been up and running for three years and she has already accomplished more than some achieve in a lifetime. The Ole Miss alum has an incredible work ethic and creativity, which has led her to where she is today.
Creating her own handbag line is something Kelly Ferguson has always wanted to do. At Ole Miss she studied studio art focusing in graphic design. When Ferguson graduated, she was fortunate enough to land a job in Dallas at a boutique PR firm. “After three years I started to get antsy and fear the unknown. I have a mentor in Dallas that I would get together with and she just asked me the simplest question that led to this ‘ah ha’ moment. She asked, ‘If you could do anything and money wasn’t an issue, what would it be.’ I just kind of blurted out for the first time ever that I just want to design handbags as crazy as that sounds. She encouraged me to start sketching and just see what happens.” It was because of Fergusons mentor in Dallas that really pushed her to pursue her dream and go for it.
The Kelly Wynne motto is “Dare to be Fabulous” and her handbags do just that. “I’m one of those people that likes to mix pattern on pattern. We dare our customers to think outside the box by encouraging them to pair a bold bag with a patterned skirt feel confident!” It’s difficult for Ferguson to pick a favorite pattern she’s created, but explains, “I feel like each bag is my child so it’s like I would be picking a favorite child. But I can’t live without my Paint the Town Tote that I wear everyday because it just holds everything. It has two outside pockets for your phone, which is perfect. I’ve been really proud of each collection and honestly every time a collection comes out I can’t believe it, it’s so surreal to me. There’s so much time preparing and developing the collection from sampling leather swatches to choosing colors for the lining.”
Ferguson gains her inspiration for each collection differently every time. However, for her current collection, “Island Allure: Choose your Escape” she was inspired by different travels she’s had. “The idea is that each bag is named after a specific island. When customers shop, I want them to ‘choose their escape’ and actually feel like they’re on a vacation when they wear the bags. For example, the color, ‘Maui Multi’ has a fun twist with its unexpected lime green and orange pattern. I find inspiration in my everyday life. For my evening collection (the ‘AfterGLOW’ collection) I was inspired by my recent engagement. As soon as I got engaged I was like, ‘this is the perfect opportunity to design an evening collection that I’ve always wanted to design.’ I launched it at the wedding and designed bags for my bridesmaids, house party, my mom, and mother in law.”
The Kelly Wynne collection has now become more than just handbags. Ferguson has incorporated a tassel key chain with fringe. “Fringe is so big right now and that’s been really fun to see. Incorporating fringe into my bags has been a fun challenge. I’ve especially loved taking a more feminine approach to this trend rather than the typical hipster vibe.”
What makes Ferguson’s handbags stand out besides her bold patterns is that everything is made in the United States. “The bags are manufactured in New York and most of my suppliers are all over the Northeast area and then in California. The main reason I decided to have bags made in the U.S. was because I didn’t have any design background in terms of fashion and creating product. I had the graphic side, but I wanted to be hands on with the product and be able to just fly there on a whim. We receive product from New York within four days of them shipping it. I have learned so much that I never knew before about production, materials, leather and all sorts of things that you would never think about.”
If you follow Kelly Wynne on social media, you’ll notice that Ferguson and her staff have a lot of fun at work. “We work hard and play hard. There is no typical day. Each day we come in and never know what kind of day we’re going to get. We’re growing our social media so that means more professional photos and doing photo shoots. On Snapchat we’re showing more behind the scenes of what goes on here in the office. Yesterday was our anniversary and I asked everyone to come up with a dare (since Kelly Wynne’s motto is “Dare to be Fabulous”) and throw it in a hat, and then we all drew. Whatever dare we drew had to be completed. We filmed it on Snapchat, and I really didn’t know it was going to take up the whole day, but it was so much fun and we just kind of went out on our adventure and nobody knew that was what we were going to be doing at work yesterday. There’s unexpected things that go on.”
Not only did Ferguson never expect to launch her own handbag line, but public speaking is something she never imagined doing as well. “I don’t like speaking in front of people so it’s a challenge, but I feel like God is calling me to encourage women to pursue their passion and their dreams no matter what by telling my story. Every single time that I do have a speech I spend the week before kind of preparing what exactly I want to say. I’m starting to get better at it in terms of the flow of telling my story and adding in funny stories. You don’t want to just stand up there and tell your story without telling the actual stories of things that have happened to you along the way. I try to give people a little bit of an inside to specific things that happened during my research phase and meeting with manufacturers for the first time. Just sharing those moments with people helps them relate to you. It’s challenging and getting me out of my comfort zone.”
As a born and raised Austinite, Ferguson still finds time with her growing business to give back to the Austin community. “We provide donations for all different kinds of organizations for their silent auctions and people reach out to us all the time. We try to gift as much as we can even though we have a higher price point product. It’s hard for us, but we really love giving back in that way. We’re going to start picking different organizations every month and choosing a certain bag so that any of the sales that come through on that bag, part of the proceeds will go back to that organization. Then as a team we’re going to go volunteer for a day at that organization. I’m really excited about that; it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. We’ve just been a small team and we haven’t really had the manpower yet to even reach out to non-profits. So that’s on top of my list.”
Kelly Wynne’s fall collection is called “Heartbeat: Experience the Rush” and will be released by the end of summer. To learn more about Kelly Wynne visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
