Smithsonian considering Laga handbags for its catalogs
June 4th, 2008, 9:30 am · handbags-for-its-catalogs/#comments”>Post a Comment · posted by Hang Nguyen
An Irvine company’s handbags may land in the Smithsonian Christmas and/or jewelry catalogs.
Laga Designs International’s five purses and a wallet have passed a pre-selection stage for the catalogs, said Danette Nguyen, assistant buyer for the Smithsonian catalogs.
The products in the Smithsonian catalogs are picked because they relate in some way to its museums’ collections. That allows it to keep its non-profit status.
The Laga bags will relate to the Asian ethological collection at the National Museum of Natural History. The collection comprises of 30,000 objects from Southeast Asia, Nguyen said.
The Laga bags are handmade by more than 150 tsunami victims in Aceh, the Indonesian province that was destroyed by the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves on Dec. 26, 2004.
The nearly three-year-old Laga business allows founder Roy Van Broekhuizen, pictured above, to reconnect with his childhood. His family, part Dutch and part Indonesian, fled Indonesia when he
was 9.
A Smithsonsian buyer came across the Laga handbags at a trade show in Las Vegas.
The institution plans to sell these pieces from $30 to $140, slightly higher than what they go for on Laga’s Web site. The Harapan “Hope” purse, pictured right, which Laga retails from $130 to $190, is one of the bags Smithsonian is considering.
The local company will find out in about two to three weeks whether it made the final cut for the Smithsonsian catalogs that arrive in homes in October, Nguyen said.
(Register photo of Van Broekhuizen and his wife Louise with their bags. Other photo from Laga Web site.)
About Us
This is the story of how we (Roy & Louise) ended up quitting our jobs to help tsunami survivors rebuild their lives, one handbag at a time. Yes, that's Oprah. She's part of the story. [read more]
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