Stacy Fan with Kreya Bag designer, Kulveen Sarna
Need is the mother of invention…
No truer words were spoken when it came to designer Kulveen and the launch of her handbag line, Kreya. I’m at Flying Solo in New York to meet the next designer in my Flying Solo series.
As we approach the display of Kulveen's beautiful handbags in front of us, the designer says “Do you often carry a tote bag and do you feel like it weighs you down? “Yes” I reply, thinking, all-the-time.. “Well, it’s a universal problem, but our bags are meant to be multifunctional so you can turn them into a backpack and so it still looks put together, it still looks chic but you’re not dying on one shoulder while you’re walking around, or traveling or whatever you need to do. So the whole philosophy behind the brand is multi-functional but beautiful. Things don’t need to be one thing. We’re very complex human beings so our fashion should also reflect that and I’ve always been passionate about handbags. So even our crossbodies turn into shoulder bags by changing out the buttons on the side so you just swipe it down. As you use it the leather just becomes softer, so I do this while walking on the street. I call it errands to dinner, or brunch."
I love it when designers create pieces or accessories that fill a need. Something that makes like just easier and if it's stylish, even better. The bags are suitable to wear on your back around the city or at the airport and then with one simple move later will have you swinging it into work with style, they are made of the most beautiful leather and the new items in a nylon fabric.
"So the thought behind this started for me in college. I went to college in NYC and I would carry 2-3 tote bags with me and walking a mile to class. And at some-point my dad came to visit and he was so distressed by it he bought me a tec backpack and I used it whilst he was in town and then I ditched it because my friends, said, it’s not cool” Kulveen laughs. "I took an accessories design class in college and it kept coming back to me, so that’s where the initial protype started."
The prototype was a backpack that had multiple pockets including those for your phone or passport, a padded compartment for iPad or laptop enabling you to carry all of your items in just one place.
No truer words were spoken when it came to designer Kulveen and the launch of her handbag line, Kreya. I’m at Flying Solo in New York to meet the next designer in my Flying Solo series.
As we approach the display of Kulveen's beautiful handbags in front of us, the designer says “Do you often carry a tote bag and do you feel like it weighs you down? “Yes” I reply, thinking, all-the-time.. “Well, it’s a universal problem, but our bags are meant to be multifunctional so you can turn them into a backpack and so it still looks put together, it still looks chic but you’re not dying on one shoulder while you’re walking around, or traveling or whatever you need to do. So the whole philosophy behind the brand is multi-functional but beautiful. Things don’t need to be one thing. We’re very complex human beings so our fashion should also reflect that and I’ve always been passionate about handbags. So even our crossbodies turn into shoulder bags by changing out the buttons on the side so you just swipe it down. As you use it the leather just becomes softer, so I do this while walking on the street. I call it errands to dinner, or brunch."
I love it when designers create pieces or accessories that fill a need. Something that makes like just easier and if it's stylish, even better. The bags are suitable to wear on your back around the city or at the airport and then with one simple move later will have you swinging it into work with style, they are made of the most beautiful leather and the new items in a nylon fabric.
"So the thought behind this started for me in college. I went to college in NYC and I would carry 2-3 tote bags with me and walking a mile to class. And at some-point my dad came to visit and he was so distressed by it he bought me a tec backpack and I used it whilst he was in town and then I ditched it because my friends, said, it’s not cool” Kulveen laughs. "I took an accessories design class in college and it kept coming back to me, so that’s where the initial protype started."
The prototype was a backpack that had multiple pockets including those for your phone or passport, a padded compartment for iPad or laptop enabling you to carry all of your items in just one place.
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A Kreya bag that goes from backpack to tote in one quick step.
Kulveen says, "It's like, how do I look put together but how do I not die from back-pain? I left it alone, and in my head had done my problem-solving exercise and then I went on to work in the world. I started working in fashion, pivoted to advertising, so I was very corporate, but I felt like, I still needed this item that I designed at one point in life. Anyway the pandemic hit, and I just got back into it. I found the prototype I made, and made it technically better. I spent the winter of year 2020 into 2021 doing that. I felt like the need hadn’t disappeared but I felt like once things came back to normal people would still need it. And it was so good for travel and across the board. I really wanted to solve the problem. And that’s when it came together.”
“I spent months trying to figure out the design, the technicality of it. I’d taken one pattern making class in school with handbags and so I had some understanding. But did I know the technicality of leather production? Absolutely not! So at one point I quit my job and really fully went into figuring out a way. So I launched in November 2022. It took me a year post quitting my job to get it off the floor. It’s been really wonderful.”
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Kreya Bags, compartmentalised pockets to keep all your items organised.
It's not immediately obvious when seeing Kulveen’s beautiful and innovative bags, but her and her family’s heritage has played a huge part in not only the inspiration behind her bag line, but she has so beautifully physically interwoven a part of her family’s roots in the bags.
“All of the dust bags are handmade in West Bengal in India which is where my mother family moved to postapartheid in India. I’m ethnically Punjabi. It’s very complicated, Punjab was split into two, half of them went to Pakistan half went to India. Both side of my family are on the Pakistan side. So everyone was displaced. My dad’s side are in Deli and my mom’s side are in West Bengal. Ethnically we don’t look like we are West Bangal and I don’t speak the language (my parents do) but it’s that diaspora kind of effect. I just wanted to play an ode to that.” Kulveen tells me her mother’s parents are the closest grandparents to her and have sadly now passed away. She pulls out a picture to show me, “I have a picture of my grandpa” The resemblance is uncanny. “It’s going to be ten years, so I miss him a lot. But it was my way of keeping that West Bengal, even though technically, in the politics of India... but I still have so much of a hold to West Bengal because of all my time spent there. So that was my way of adding that into something, that obviously means so much to me.”
“All of the dust bags are handmade in West Bengal in India which is where my mother family moved to postapartheid in India. I’m ethnically Punjabi. It’s very complicated, Punjab was split into two, half of them went to Pakistan half went to India. Both side of my family are on the Pakistan side. So everyone was displaced. My dad’s side are in Deli and my mom’s side are in West Bengal. Ethnically we don’t look like we are West Bangal and I don’t speak the language (my parents do) but it’s that diaspora kind of effect. I just wanted to play an ode to that.” Kulveen tells me her mother’s parents are the closest grandparents to her and have sadly now passed away. She pulls out a picture to show me, “I have a picture of my grandpa” The resemblance is uncanny. “It’s going to be ten years, so I miss him a lot. But it was my way of keeping that West Bengal, even though technically, in the politics of India... but I still have so much of a hold to West Bengal because of all my time spent there. So that was my way of adding that into something, that obviously means so much to me.”
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The Aurora bag in brown leather.
It's this clear love of her grandparents and a longing to pay homage to them and her heritage that sets Kulveen’s bags apart from so many others. “My parents immigrated here; I did spend a couple of years in India where I really got myself immersed in my culture. I was in high school (when I went). It was the most beneficial thing in the world because I really got to spend time with my family and my grandparents. I got to be immersed in the culture and there’s so much in textile and design and fabric in India which is so amazing and to actually see all of that happen in real time. You see the embroidering on the loom and all of that. So that was really beautiful. And I knew in my heart I wanted to pay a tribute somewhere, somehow. So the dust bags were the best way to do it. Hopefully in the future we’ll find ways to bring that into the actual handbags.
Kulveen launched her line in 2022 with four bags, they’re now expanding in both style and colorways. Kulveen has been so incredibly thoughtful when it comes to the design of her bags. The inception was creating a technically functional bag that looked stylish whilst being practical, but she’s also been thoughtful with inclusivity when considering her consumer.
“We launched a new bag about a month ago. These are in nylon. A version of the Aurora backpack / tote bag. This is the new version and the fabric is called Nova, and it’s a nylon and they have adjustable straps. So the biggest thing I love about doing this is that I always want to be inclusive. This brings in inclusivity in terms of price point, it also brings in inclusivity in terms of sizing. Sometimes you need more room under your arm, sometimes you need more room against your back. So we’ve brought in the same design detail as the crossbody here so you would adjust your straps with the buttons, but you can go as you need. So all of that thoughtful design (is there). All of our bags have a phone pocket. Our backpack tote bag has it one side and in the crossbody it’s in the back.
The Aurora bag in Nova
“For travel this bag is wildly popular. You can take the kitchen sink in here but it still looks compact, it doesn’t look bulky. I’ve had a lot of customer’s feedback that they love this for travel. This one comes with more compartments. A built-in laptop sleeve that you can fit your laptop into. A whole bunch of things. We have expandable snaps on the side so you can expand it.”
I take a look at Kulveen's own bag, and she has indeed managed to carry a lot in there. More than I would have guessed looking at it from the outside! "This is when you get to see my kitchen sink..." Kulveen jokes.
Next month we’re launching more of the bags in canvas. It’s hard to find things on the market that are minimalistic, but still functional and put together. You can wear it to your meeting as a backpack and then when you get somewhere you can use it as a tote so you can just feel a bit more put together.”
Kulveen is clearly incredibly intelligent, culturally rounded and I love that she has used the technical side of her brain to create something that blends both her love of fashion with her more logical, scientific way of thinking. Blending the two, she’s created something technically beautiful and chic, and certainly fills a void in the market.
“I was in every art class in school. I dropped science to take a pottery class” Kulveen laughs. "I was also very brainy but I loved art and expressing myself. I went to Parson’s for undergrad. Went into the fashion program, but then I missed the other side of my brain, so I switched my freshmen year, so I switched to strategic design and management which was their design thinking program. So I got to do everything I like to do. I got to be creative, I got to be analytical. And I think it’s always wrong when they say creatives can’t be analytical, I’m like uhuh..take it back, take it back, because that’s not true. So this was a perfect fit for me. I got to do my accessories design class.”
Kulveen has always loved bags, “I used to carry my mom and aunts’ handbags all around the house as though I was going somewhere. At 8 years old or whatever it was, I would always be into their stuff. I always going to Claire’s and find little bags to carry around. So I’ve always loved handbags. Then I kind of switched my design thinking to advertising and I ended up in pharmaceutical advertising so I did like a 180 sort of spectrum, what’s going on…! I missed it. I missed being creative. I got to work with a lot of creatives but I just missed being creative myself. I would do things on the side. My eye was always on the runway stuff, my ear was always on the ground. But I was always a little bit removed from it.”
I take a look at Kulveen's own bag, and she has indeed managed to carry a lot in there. More than I would have guessed looking at it from the outside! "This is when you get to see my kitchen sink..." Kulveen jokes.
Next month we’re launching more of the bags in canvas. It’s hard to find things on the market that are minimalistic, but still functional and put together. You can wear it to your meeting as a backpack and then when you get somewhere you can use it as a tote so you can just feel a bit more put together.”
Kulveen is clearly incredibly intelligent, culturally rounded and I love that she has used the technical side of her brain to create something that blends both her love of fashion with her more logical, scientific way of thinking. Blending the two, she’s created something technically beautiful and chic, and certainly fills a void in the market.
“I was in every art class in school. I dropped science to take a pottery class” Kulveen laughs. "I was also very brainy but I loved art and expressing myself. I went to Parson’s for undergrad. Went into the fashion program, but then I missed the other side of my brain, so I switched my freshmen year, so I switched to strategic design and management which was their design thinking program. So I got to do everything I like to do. I got to be creative, I got to be analytical. And I think it’s always wrong when they say creatives can’t be analytical, I’m like uhuh..take it back, take it back, because that’s not true. So this was a perfect fit for me. I got to do my accessories design class.”
Kulveen has always loved bags, “I used to carry my mom and aunts’ handbags all around the house as though I was going somewhere. At 8 years old or whatever it was, I would always be into their stuff. I always going to Claire’s and find little bags to carry around. So I’ve always loved handbags. Then I kind of switched my design thinking to advertising and I ended up in pharmaceutical advertising so I did like a 180 sort of spectrum, what’s going on…! I missed it. I missed being creative. I got to work with a lot of creatives but I just missed being creative myself. I would do things on the side. My eye was always on the runway stuff, my ear was always on the ground. But I was always a little bit removed from it.”
The new Aurora bag in the new nylon fabric.
A flair for fabrics and fashion clearly runs in Kulveen’s family, “My mum has this insane ability. She’ll touch a fabric and she’ll know exactly what it is. And I’ve always loved shopping with her. Especially in India over the summer break and she’ll be like this is poly, this is pure, this is chiffon, this is silk something. And I’d always be like, ‘wow’…!”
"So she grew up in a world where you got things made and that was what you wore. It wasn’t like the fast fashion world we live in now. I’ve always been around fabric."
In a world where we are so often judged by what we look like, what our religion, culture or heritage says about us has most certainly played a part in Kulveen starting up Kreya Bags. That desire to always represent yourself in the best way possible.
“My grandmother, both grandmothers were really into fashion. My aunt, all the women in my family. But the men in my family also really care about the way they present themselves to the world. I’m Sikh, my faith is Sikhism and all of the men wear turbans.
So we sometimes talk in my family, when you look so different than everyone else, it’s so important to put your best foot forward in how you present yourself to the world and that breaks down a barrier a little bit. It’s funny, it’s just been around our family all the time. Being put together, looking good in front of the world and also expressing yourself in that way. So that’s always been in our system.”
Giving back is also hugely important to Kulveen, even as a new company. "We like to donate to organizations in India. One of the organizations we have donated to a lot is Palsa Aid. It’s not limited to women and children but they go to areas that are in conflict and go to help them with food and shelter and all of that. That is an organization near and dear to my heart."
Created with heritage and heart in mind, whilst being centred around inclusivity and functionality, Kreya bags are certainly filling a void. And in a time of needing to put our best foot forward, and perhaps breaking down a little barrier, Kreya bags are here just at the right time.
Kreya Bags are available at :
Flying Solo
www.shopkreya.com
IG: @shopkreya
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