Handbag Designer Cara Benevenia Is Exactly Who the Fashion Industry Needs

Cara Benevenia is a identify you are going to want to recall. The New Jersey native introduced her eponymous handbag label in 2019 and has been hustling ever considering that. With a lovely, one particular of a form woven leather-based textile and a commitment to domestic creation, Cara is properly on her way to getting to be a domestic title in the fashion sector.

Cara graduated from Marist Higher education in 2017, earning her Bachelor of High-quality Arts in Vogue/Apparel Style, where by she was awarded the prestigious Fantastic Senior Selection award. Although in faculty, Cara beloved the artistic freedom she had to layout without the need of stressing about the expenses of mass creation and other a lot more technological features of coming up with in the marketplace.

She claims: “Really finding to develop no matter what I needed and let my eyesight glow by way of was this kind of a large and these a time of adrenaline, and not automatically notice, but really just a experience-excellent component of my lifestyle where my artwork genuinely got to shine.”

Quickly forward to just after graduation, and she began doing the job with Zac Posen at his atelier. Nonetheless, her company purpose left one thing to be preferred in phrases of creative imagination. Her work generally consisted of managing the atelier workflow, fabric growth, and doing work on her computer system a lot more than she was at a sewing device.

“I liked it, it was a excellent prospect but at the end of the working day I desired my perform to glow and I just realized I have that passion and I have that drive and I have what it usually takes to do one thing on my own,” Cara shares. 

Cara took a leap of religion and stop her company job in buy to pursue her dream of being a designer. She created her 1st bag, the Icon Bag, and labored on branding for 9 months right before launching her eponymous handbag label. 

“I knew if I was likely to have a chance, I was likely to have to have some thing that was to start with to current market,” she shares. 

Which is exactly where her design and style university days occur in. Cara’s senior collection integrated outerwear pieces designed of a wonderful woven textile that she employed as inspiration to design and style her handbags. Her a single of a type woven leather textile took three rounds of prototypes ahead of it was great, performing with a area leather-based factory to iron out the information. To this day, Cara is fully commited to domestic production, as all of her handbags are manufactured in her dwelling state of New Jersey by area artisans. They work jointly to strategically measure and engineer the strips of leather-based so that they lay flawlessly in the mesh that retains them collectively. Each bag is actually a do the job of artwork and the interest to craftsmanship is evident in each and every Cara Benevenia style and design. 

Cara’s story is not just one of sheer luck—it’s a tale of grit, dedication, and really hard function above all. She may perhaps make it search easy, but her achievements didn’t come overnight. 

“I launched Cara Benevenia just a number of months before COVID occurred, which was just mentally rough,” Cara shares. “That 12 months I was seriously like ‘What am I executing? I need to have to give up’ You know, you are sitting down on Instagram attempting to determine out how to marketplace a $500 bag when persons are dying and dropping their jobs… I had these beautiful leading of the line baggage and I just could not discover it in my heart to boost them.”

Pressure about the long term and taking part in the comparison game (which we’re all responsible of) led Cara to hurry the start of her Baguette and Billie bags, a conclusion she now states taught her an vital lesson to not hurry the procedure. 

“In the business that I’m in, I’m not competing with speedy manner and I did not have to have to rush possibly of all those bags to current market mainly because these baggage, like the mould, you will have for everyday living. It is not a bag that you’re going to use a single time and toss out because it ripped or it’s not in model. Putting in the time and exertion to make guaranteed it’s heading to be timeless and to make certain it’s going to past forever is more essential . . . I truly feel that sluggish and continuous wins the race and I require to focus on actually acquiring lovely leading of the line baggage at a excellent cost that notify a tale and that my clients are heading to appreciate and put on permanently.”

Get a single glimpse at Cara’s styles, and it’s correct. Her baggage are timeless functions of art that will truly past a lifetime. It’s crystal clear that Cara is passionate about what she does, who she is, and what she stands for. Her purses inform a story of pursuing a dream and doing work difficult to get there.

“It’s nearly like all the things I have been as a result of and all that I have grown is woven into each individual bag and I just come to feel definitely very pleased and truly satisfied,” she tells me.

Now, Cara’s handbags have graced the web pages of NJ Month to month, New Jersey Digest, and Yahoo! Finance. Type icons this kind of as Gabrielle Union and Caroline Vazzana have rocked their Cara Benevenia handbags. Though she is very pleased of her do the job as a designer, even much more remarkable is her journey of self-discovery.

“I experience like I’ve become the man or woman who I felt like was missing in the field when I worked there, just an individual who’s really form, and anyone who my interns actually appreciate functioning with and operating for. Someone who stands for anything.”

In an market that from time to time receives labeled less than a lousy stereotype (ahem, The Devil Wears Prada) Cara preaches that kindness is the way to results. “Kindness is really key,” she claims. “The field is so compact and I assume kind, genuine individuals really do make it considerably.”

And for people looking to develop into business people by themselves, she implies acquiring a little something one of a kind that will make your brand name stand out. No matter if it is a initially to market solution or a distinctive way of conducting enterprise, these are the things that can assist you stand out in an oversaturated marketplace.

“I know there are so lots of brands out there and you can not reinvent the wheel, but perhaps you can reinvent the way it’s carried out.”

Stick to Cara Benevenia on Instagram and store below.