We recently connected with Lauren Seivert Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The creation of my company, Art Vandelet Bag Tags, came from a love of a lot of things. Handbags mainly! But the entire brand was really letting my imagination run wild to create a company, run by this fictional character Art Vandelet, that can be more sartorially appointed than I am in real life and get away with saying and being far wilder and more cheekier than I could ever be. That’s the main reason I didn’t name the company after myself. As you can see, from the content on the luggage tags themselves down to the captions on our social media accounts, Art Vandelet has a very indulgent, debaucherous, and exuberant lifestyle that definitely does not mirror my own so in a way it frees me to be more creative and take more liberties instead of having to water the brand down. At first, we just had the titanium luggage tag (that is a higher price range and is custom ordered with your name engraved) but we’ve been adding new designs to our plastic collection, which is so fun and colorful, so our items can be accessible to more fans of Art. We are also excited about launching our leather collection soon which will bridge the gap between the two price points as well as offer a completely different vibe and style to your bag or luggage. I think bag accessories are coming back in a big way lately from what I’ve seen in the fashion scene. And personally, I love adding a pop of color with something funny on it, almost like a graphic tee shirt, to set my handbag apart!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Just as Louis Vuitton began with just luggage and is now an entire lifestyle brand, I can see Art Vandelet expanding already! Right now we are waiting on a shipment of bag charms to add to our collection (so stay tuned for those!) and travel accessories such as passport protectors and mini travel bags with our signature sayings on them. We’ve also been working on our website so you can very soon custom engrave your own saying on our titanium luggage tags, not just chose one of our cheeky sayings as well as your name. We are very excited about a few creative collaborations with some other amazing companies that are coming up. So Art Vandelet is getting very busy and we are extremely excited about new products coming out very very soon…some of them are already on our social media if you follow us you can get a sneak peak!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As a very new company, we had to start with zero followers just like everybody else and honestly we are still struggling to build a following on our Art Vandelet Bag Tags account. My personal account, I’ve been lucky enough to have for many years and have had the time and energy to slowly and steadily build my personal followers to a strong amount so I do advertise the company on my instagram as much as I can to the point of being obnoxious. In the very early stages I got PR advice that was immeasurably helpful from Melissa Lively who is amazing at what she does and I’d like to thank her. But I’m still learning what works and doesn’t work for a brand that definitely isn’t vanilla and isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea…my best advice to anyone starting out is to just start. Don’t be scared to put yourself out there and be authentically you so your followers can really be your day ones. If you have product to sell, done is better than perfect so just do your best and put yourself out there!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Now this is a great question and the answer is a great story…but I signed an NDA ;)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artvandeletbagtags.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artvandeletbagtags/

Image Credits

Lauren Seivert Brown & Michael Franco