Like most successful entrepreneurs doing what they love for a living, Kim White just did it. She explored her passion-hobby for making funk-tional bags and it turned into a successful business that is growing in leaps and bounds.
"In college I would make and sell in stores on campus (at Cal State Long Beach) and in all the shops along Belmont Shores. It evolved into a full-time business."
Kim's bags were featured in the first season of The OC - her vintage floral bags blew up and off the shelves everywhere she had them placed. Riding off the wave of that success, Kim found the inspiration for her new and most publicized line, featuring car seat fabrics.
"I needed to find new fabrics. I didn't want leather - it's too hard to make that unique. I put the word out to friends, asking if they knew where any warehouses of fabric were located that would sell to me. I got a tip from a furniture-designer friend that there was a wholesaler going out of business. I trucked down there and found tons of upholstery fabric, but nothing dazzled me. Then I saw an area in the back we hadn't been to and asked what was back there? 10,000 yards of car upholstery fabric from the 70s. He was going to take it to the dump. I bought it all."
Kim's round bags are best-sellers. Pick up those and others on her site at www.kimwhitehandbags.com.
