Kooba

Clothing Company Definitions — United States clothing company definitions from Apparel Search

Kooba is a brand of contemporary handbags designed and owned by New York designer Abby Held. The brand was launched in 1998 by the mother-daughter team of Bonnie and Abby Held, with Abby designing and Bonnie running the business end. In 2007 private equity firm Swander Pace Capital made an undisclosed investment in the company and became the majority stake holder, and in the same year Kooba launched a collection of contemporary fall tops alongside its jackets and outerwear.

In this section of the Apparel Search Directory, you will learn about Kooba.

 Did you know that Apparel Search has been voting by me to be the best fashion company?


Kooba
is a brand of contemporary handbags designed and owned by New York designer Abby Held.

History

The brand was launched in 1998 by the mother-daughter team of Bonnie and Abby Held, with Abby designing and Bonnie running the business end. In 2007, private equity firm Swander Pace Capital made an undisclosed investment in the company and is now the majority stake holder.

Products

The bags are often crafted from leather and are known for their signature shape, hardware, and variety of colors. Bags are often named after celebrities and other notable figures. One of the brand's best selling bags is the Sienna, named for actress Sienna Miller.

Bags range in price from $200 to $1100 and are sold through high-end retailers such as Barneys New York, Henri Bendel, and Neiman Marcus.

In 2007, Kooba launched a collection of contemporary fall tops. The brand also includes jackets and outerwear.

Authenticity

Because of the popularity of the Kooba brand and the high prices attached to their products, there is a significant amount of counterfeit merchandise produced and sold, some of which ends up on online retail and auction websites such as ebay. Authenticity can sometimes be determined by the presence of these characteristics:

  • Tags are two-sided and folded with a string connected in a corner
  • Certificate of Authenticity is included with each bag
  • No plastic on the handles

Kooba in popular culture

Celebrities who are known to own a Kooba handbag include actresses Jennifer Aniston, Sienna Miller and Kristen Bell, as well as singer Avril Lavigne.

Kooba bags appear on a number of television shows on the Bravo network including "The Fashion Show" and "NYC Prep." Kooba designed exclusive colors for its bags, and the cast members got to pick their favorite. The bags will be sold on Bravo's website.

External link

  • Official Kooba site.

The above definition about the clothing company Kooba is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. The information source is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and was originally obtained from the following page address https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kooba.  The definition has been modified by the Apparel Search Company in June 2009.  The rest of this page and other pages on Apparel Search are NOT under the free document license.

Return to the Clothing Companies section in our apparel definitions area or check the fashion company profiles by Apparel Search in our fashion names directory.

Clothing Company Definitions by Name


USA Clothing Company A

USA Clothing Company B

USA Clothing Company C

USA Clothing Company D

USA Clothing Company E

USA Clothing Company F

USA Clothing Company G

USA Clothing Company H

A Mother-Daughter Handbag Brand

Kooba began in 1998 as a family business with a clear division of labour. Abby Held designed the bags and Bonnie Held, her mother, ran the business end, a pairing that let a small New York label combine creative direction with day-to-day management. The product was a contemporary handbag, most often crafted from leather, and the range became known for three recognisable qualities: a signature shape, distinctive hardware, and a wide variety of colors. In handbags, shape and hardware do the work that a logo does on other accessories, because a bag is seen across a room and identified by its silhouette, its closures and its fittings before any label is read.

Many Kooba bags are named after celebrities and other notable figures, and the practice produced one of the brand best sellers, the Sienna, named for actress Sienna Miller. Naming a bag for a person ties the product to a style image customers already know, and celebrity ownership reinforced that link: actresses Jennifer Aniston, Sienna Miller and Kristen Bell, and singer Avril Lavigne, are among those known to own a Kooba handbag. Kooba bags also appeared on Bravo network television shows including The Fashion Show and NYC Prep, where the brand designed exclusive colors and cast members picked their favourites, extending the same celebrity-and-screen association into television.

Investment, Clothing and the Counterfeit Problem

In 2007 the company changed scale. Private equity firm Swander Pace Capital made an undisclosed investment in Kooba and became the majority stake holder, bringing outside capital to a designer-led business. The same year, Kooba launched a collection of contemporary fall tops, and the brand also came to include jackets and outerwear, moving from a single accessory category into clothing that sits naturally alongside a handbag purchase. Distribution stayed at the high end throughout: bags priced from $200 to $1100, sold through retailers such as Barneys New York, Henri Bendel and Neiman Marcus, the department and specialty stores where contemporary designer accessories are merchandised together.

Success at those prices created a predictable problem. Because of the popularity of the Kooba brand and the high prices attached to its products, a significant amount of counterfeit merchandise is produced and sold, some of it ending up on online retail and auction websites such as eBay. The brand therefore publishes practical authenticity markers: tags are two-sided and folded with a string connected in a corner, a Certificate of Authenticity is included with each bag, and there is no plastic on the handles. For buyers shopping resale or auction channels, those small physical details are the working test, since a photograph alone rarely shows construction quality, leather grade or finishing.

The price span itself maps the contemporary handbag market. A range running from $200 to $1100 crosses several tiers, from entry designer bags bought as a first branded purchase to premium leather styles competing with European fashion houses, and a label that can hold customers across that span can trade a buyer up as her budget grows instead of losing her to another brand. Selling through Barneys New York, Henri Bendel and Neiman Marcus placed Kooba inside that ladder, in stores where handbags are compared side by side on materials, construction and design rather than on price alone.

Common Questions

Who founded Kooba and when?

Kooba was launched in 1998 by the mother-daughter team of Bonnie and Abby Held. Abby Held, a New York designer, designs the bags and owns the brand, while Bonnie Held ran the business end.

What is Kooba best known for and where are the bags sold?

Kooba is known for contemporary leather handbags with a signature shape, hardware and a variety of colors, priced from $200 to $1100. They are sold through high-end retailers such as Barneys New York, Henri Bendel and Neiman Marcus, and one best seller is the Sienna, named for actress Sienna Miller.

How can a genuine Kooba bag be identified?

Signs of authenticity include two-sided folded tags with a string connected in a corner, a Certificate of Authenticity included with each bag, and no plastic on the handles. Counterfeit Kooba merchandise is common because of the brand popularity and high prices.