Poppy Lissiman + Hattie Stewart Collaboration Clutches
The Australian designer and British artist join forces to create a seriously playful bag
Perth-based Poppy Lissiman has been making her clientele happy for some time with her super-bold and bright clutch creations. Relying heavily on striking motifs—eyeballs, dollar signs, lips and love-hearts—and plenty of metallics and sparkles, Lissiman’s creations are genuinely eye-catching. The young designer, who started her label in 2008, has just released the brand’s very first collaboration: playful and colorful clutches designed with British artist Hattie Stewart. We spoke with Lissiman about how the partnership occurred and why gaudy is good.
How did the collaboration with Hattie Stewart come about?
Like with most modern fairytales we started following each other on Instagram. I can’t remember who made the first move but we both were big fans of each other’s work and did a swap of one of Hattie’s prints for a clutch. We immediately hit it off over email when we started chatting and I put it to Hattie about doing a collab. It was the first one I had ever done, she has previously worked with House of Holland, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Adidas.
What was it about Hattie’s work that you were particularly drawn to?
It’s really different from anything else out there. She has a really distinctive style and when you look at any of her pieces they just make you smile, they’re just so delightfully cheeky.
What was the collaborative design process like?
One of the reasons I was drawn to Hattie to do a collab was because we both use similar motifs throughout our work—but very differently. For example, Hattie and I both use hearts, eyes and mouths frequently but they look vastly different. I wanted to keep going with that theme on my clutches, but inject Hattie’s style to it. I had just recently started working with digital printed faux leather which gave Hattie the chance to go crazy with her doodling for the backgrounds of the clutches, then based on what I know about appliquéing and cut outs for the front of each bag I directed Hattie on how detailed we could go when she designed the hero piece for the centre of each clutch.
Did the designs go through a few iterations?
Barely any. We did two rounds of designs with the second lot looking exactly how I had envisaged, we went ahead and sampled those and the only changes that were made was the colors printed onto one of the bags. The appliqué process which I was managing with my factory took some time to get exactly right—I was very careful that they kept the shape exactly as Hattie’s original design, and this took a little bit of work.
What do you hope buyers get from the clutches—is there a mood or vibe you’re aiming for?
Probably the same feeling that I have when I look at Hattie’s work. I hope they make the buyer smile and everyone who sees them with it too.
The Hattie Heart Clutch and the Hattie Smiley Clutch are available at Poppy Lissiman’s online store for $95 AUD and is made from appliquéd faux leather. Be sure to browse all the other goodies, from sunglasses to bags and phone cases.
Images courtesy of Poppy Lissiman
