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Can you share your background and how you started?
I graduated with a degree in journalism… but I had always had a long-time passion for fashion and styling. I’ve been doing all these things, like fashion show since high school… During high school, we used to put on runway shows, and I would be in charge of the production, styling, and casting... I don't know how I did it, but I suppose it was my love for fashion.
I decided to move to the US, where I sold most of my my possesions, to save up money for a plane ticket and this new journey. I had about a thousand dollars in my pocket and flew to the States… I didn’t really have a plan.
When I arrived, the plan was to stay for 6 months. I immediately paid for English language classes to try get myself started. Then I started to work in a restaurant. My English was not good at all… I could think fast, but my English couldn't keep up. It was really slow. It was a lot. Before I knew it, time was up, and the 6 months had passed... I felt like, “No way I’m going back to Thailand, I’m not done here.”
I would always drive to New York for the weekend. I first went to New York when I moved to D.C. When I went for the first time, I thought, “This is the dream.” From the first time I went there, I knew this was my dream, the place I HAD to be.
I kept working, and somehow, I made a Thai friend in New York. He studied and worked in fashion…he helped me move.
I had to move without even having any apartment. I looked on Craigslist for a roommate and an apartment. I started working [in a sushi restaurant] and enrolled in night classes at FIT and went once a week. It was for fashion design. It wasn’t glamorous. It was for people who worked to learn how to design and sew their own clothing.
What was the reason for founding the brand?
That year, when I met my then-partner, now husband and co-creator (and still partner), he noticed I love handbags - I always looked at and studied handbags on the streets. It was the era of the very first “it” bags that I think came during that time: the Chloe Paddington bag, then the Balenciaga City bag. I always looked around. While I was working at the restaurant, I especially kept my eyes open. Designers, Models, Hip Hop artists, and actors would all come to the restaurant.
It was like food for my eyes, and brain, you know? I really enjoyed observing.
And Jesse (husband, co-founder, creative director, and CEO of BOYY) said, “You know, if you love [bags] so much, why don't we start designing one?” And then that's when I dropped out. I didn't feel like going to the night class, and sewing a dress that wasn't really giving me anything. So I stopped. And I started designing a bag.
[So] We bought leather in the Garment District, found a pattern maker, and then we started designing together.
[And] in 2015 we launched the buckle. That design changed our brand… it changed our lives.
Any career advice for the readers who seek to become a successful designer like you?
You really have to love it. Because even me, sometimes I feel like I’m suffering.It’s much more work than what you see from the facade…We work all day, we talk about it all night, seven days a week, nonstop.
Having a brand is like having a baby. You’re really have to take care of every aspect, and there’s many many.
It’s not that glamorous.But, if you can come up with that amazing product, I believe that it will rise to the surface and when then happens, it’s up to you how to move forward with the opportunity.
