Laura Nelli

Photo by Stephanie Colgan

Who: Twenty-eight-year-old Laura Nelli is the emerging Minneapolis designer behind Nelle Handbags, an elegant collection of evening clutches and totes produced out of her Lowry Hill home. This year, Nelli’s Perfectly Petersham clutch bag was named one of five finalists in the Best Handmade Handbag category at the Independent Handbag Designer Awards—beating out more than 600 entries from around the globe.

Botanical Beginning: “I worked at a flower shop in college,” says Nelli. “And when I graduated I wanted to keep creating and building things. I wasn’t a handbag guru by any means, but I was inspired by the colors and textures of flowers. One morning—very sporadically—I woke up, hit my boyfriend, and said, ‘I’m going to design handbags!’ So I got a library card and checked out a bunch of books on design, pattern making, and fabrics. Then I bought a 
really beat-up sewing machine from a thrift store and started teaching myself.”

Casual Luxury: Nelle Handbags are fashioned primarily out of silk charmeuse, hemp canvas, and black ticking fabric and priced at $80 to $300. “I love the shine and texture of the silk charmeuse against the heavy weave of the hemp canvas. These are fabrics that speak to me because they’re luxurious, yet familiar and casual. I like to think of it as casual luxury—something for everyone.” Charming embellishments, such as vintage brooches found at estate sales and ribbons sourced from London’s VV Rouleaux—adorn many of Nelli’s clutches. “I’m really not a girly girl but I design these lovely, feminine bags,” she laughs. “I guess I’m channeling my inner pink!”

Runway Effect: “I follow the runway trends a lot more than I do trends in handbags. They are doing so many exciting things with fabrics right now, and I love being able to translate that into something you can hold. Not every woman can walk around with a million micro pleats hanging off of her, but anyone can carry a bag with micro pleats.”

Big Break in the Big Apple: As a finalist at the Independent Handbag Designer Awards, Nelli’s creations were showcased in a three-day trunk show at renowned NYC department store Henri Bendel. “I got to meet Judith Leiber and other independent designers from around the world,” she says. “It was really inspiring to see what everyone was doing.” And people certainly took notice of Nelli: Nearly all of her designs sold out, she was invited to return for future shows at Bendel, and her Cherub clutch was picked up by Greenwich Village jewelry shop Covet.

Keeping It in the TC: With added notoriety and national exposure in InStyle Weddings, there was an 
obvious need to hire extra hands. “It was really important for me to keep all of my production local,” she says. Nelli’s involvement with Minneapolis’s Project Regina—a nonprofit program that provides sewing and fabric work to low-income immigrants and refugees—made this a reality.

What’s Next: “I want to keep developing and challenging myself in design. I hope to really establish myself in the wedding market because I love taking care of brides and incorporating my creativity into their visions. I’d also love to develop a more utilitarian daytime collection, but for now, I’m focusing on my evening bags. Mentally, I’m already working on the January 2009 line.”

Nelle Handbags are available locally at I Do & Baby Too in Wayzata, or online.