December 2004

The Bag Ladies
By Catherine Calvert

For sisters Helena and Emily McHugh, a successful work life is, well, in the bag. After concocting a high-style holdall for laptops, they launched Casauri, a company now diversifying into a line of luggage that combines the same convenience and knockout good looks. Their success springs from their complementary talents and similar working style. “We know each other really, really well,” says Emily, “We work by consensus, and trade ideas back and forth.

Duties divide nicely. Emily went to Columbia University Business School for a Master’s. Helena studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology. When Emily headed off to campus with the obligatory laptop, she asked Helena to make her a better case for it. (“I come from a long line of seamstresses,” says Helena. “I sewed clothes for my dolls, clothes for myself. But studying pattern-making at FIT really taught me how to put things together.”) So Helena ran up a case, blue vinyl with a flower-sprigged lining. In a sea of boring black bags, “everybody noticed,” says Emily.

The compliments were nice, and the tote served her well. But it wasn’t until her last course, “Managing New Business Ventures,” that she took a closer look at it. “We had to come up with a business plan for a new enterprise,” she says. “And I just knew there was a place for bags like mine, especially for women.” Emily got an A—and the impetus for the company. Helena started sewing up prototypes. “Making a bag is much more difficult than a dress; you have to think about structure, and piece it together.”

Then there was research—another word for pavement pounding. “We did a lot of it,” says Emily, who talked to stores about what customers demanded, and got more management advice from the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Helena’s experiments with structure and design resulted in an initial line that was placed in cutting-edge design stores like Flight 001, Henri Bendel, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store. It seemed as if the world was waiting for a case in kiwi-green nylon or powder-pink (their top sellers) as well as neatnik navy. Pretty and practical (you can drop them, and padding ensures the computer will probably still compute), the bags garnered attention—and sales.

In the five years since, the sisters, now in their 30’s, found a manufacturer in China, and added a Web site to showcase and sell their rapidly expanding line. (Take a look at www.casauri.com) There are small bags and “envelopes,” pouches and ID card holders. Customers have begun to ask for carry-on luggage and handbags, and iPod cases that match. “The most satisfying thing is hearing feedback from customers,” says Emily. “Once we saw someone carrying one of our bags up Park Avenue, and we almost climbed out of the cab, we were so excited,” says Helena.

Emily’s expertise in setting up a new business, and the lessons learned along the way, have made her a mentor for others with a big idea, and she writes a magazine column in the Caribbean American and Hispanic Business Journal http://www.cbji.com, which is reprinted online for the New Jersey Small Business Development Center www.njsbdc.com (also on their own Web site) to encourage others. “I think my entrepreneurial urge came from spending so much time on my family’s farm in Jamaica, when I was growing up.” Helena has returned to FIT for more concentrated lessons in construction and design, and both commute between their New Jersey and Florida bases, emails and phone calls flying between the two, as they plot their trip to China and discuss, say, a handle on a new bag. “Oh yes, we do disagree sometimes,” says Helena—and so does Emily. “But we don’t argue—we discuss. And it all works out.”


Please visit http://www.styleandsense.com/casauri