Kestrel — Malia Forbath

KESTREL BAGS

Kestrel was an accessories brand of everyday and travel bags, defined by hand-drawn prints in distinctive seasonal colorways. It was sold at Nordstrom, Anthropologie, and more, and featured on the cover of WWD.

The Process

I worked on Kestrel as a designer at Conair/Allegro, taking on more creative responsibility across the life of the brand. In the first year, I collaborated with designer Sienna Gilliam: together we hand-drew and repeated prints, combining original artwork with purchased vintage illustrations that we redrew, recolored, and transformed into something new. I also selected and purchased the leather each season and designed bag shapes using raw textiles.

From there, I took full creative ownership. I set the creative direction each season, designed all prints, patterns, and repeats, developed seasonal colorways, designed bag structures and trims, and specified hardware, zippers, and leather. I worked with a pattern maker to refine bag shapes each season.

I also partnered with the Director of Brand Marketing on seasonal shoots, developing the look, scouting locations, art directing on set, retouching, and building the lookbook.

Kestrel

2012-2016

Set the creative direction each season.
Original and purchased vintage artwork, redrawn, repeated, and transformed into new prints, with unique colorways each season.
Designed bag shapes with a pattern maker; designed trims and specified leather colors, zippers, and pullers.
Developed the look of each shoot with the Director of Brand Marketing, scouted locations, art directed on set, retouched photos, and created the lookbook.

CREDITS

Brand Director: Marcia Scherer

Director of Brand Marketing: Malia O’Brien

Director of New Business Strategy: Sarah Phan

Creative Collaboration (Year1): Sinna Gilliam

Sales Lead: Susannah Fuller

I redrew purchased vintage floral artwork, and layered it over our Kestrel stripe pattern (drawn and repeated by Sienna Gilliam) to create a new pattern. I then repeated the complex pattern.