Though her name is increasingly familiar to fashion followers across the country, Lauren Merkin '96 never anticipated her career as a designer. But after several years at an engineering consulting firm in California and business school at Columbia University, Merkin launched her eponymous handbag line.
After getting her M.B.A., Merkin said she "started getting back to her creative roots."
Merkin returned to sewing, a hobby she has pursued on and off since she was 11. After wearing a few of her handmade bags around New York City, she received good feedback and decided that handbag design might be a good business venture.
Merkin soon had several of her designs professionally made and began going door-to-door to stores in New York City with the bags.
"I got a really good order from Bergdorf Goodman, so we started selling to stores around the country," Merkin said.
Merkin comes across as almost surprised by her success. "I definitely pursued (the business) and went after it, but it just happened magically in a way," she said.
Merkin's current career may surprise her in part because she did not expect to end up in the fashion world. The Washington, D.C., native said she participated in art of all kinds while growing up but saw it only as a hobby and not necessarily a potential career path.
Though she was interested in both business and design, Merkin concentrated in education studies at Brown.
"I came to Brown unsure of what I wanted to do," she said. "I did take a couple of art classes later on, but I fell in love with education."
Merkin focused on education policy, in which she saw similarities to the business world. Though education may seem a far cry from handbag design, Merkin said her years at Brown helped her develop a vision of the professional life she wanted.
"(The Brown education) makes you search for a career you love," she said. "It gave me high standards for how satisfied I was going to be in my own career."
After graduating, Merkin moved to San Francisco and began work at an engineering consulting firm. "It was a great experience in terms of learning about running a small business," Merkin said.
But Merkin said she felt the job only engaged one aspect of her varied interests.
"My desire to go to business school was to find a way to merge my business interest with my more creative interest," she continued. "I always knew, growing up, that I would want to start my own business."
After several years of pursuing the handbag business with considerable success, Merkin recently looked to her friends from Brown for support as the business grew. One former classmate, Jesse Kaplan '96, joined Merkin earlier this year as her business manager.
"Lauren and I have basically been best friends since we first met at Brown (in) our freshman year 14 years ago," Kaplan wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.
Though he was cautioned not to mix business and friendship, Kaplan said, "Working with Lauren has been easy. We always joke about how we have never had a fight, and to date, we can still make that claim."
Kaplan, a business economics concentrator at Brown, described himself as "one of the least fashionable people" he knows.
"If you ever need a good laugh, you should listen to me try to explain to an individual that calls for advice on what bag would go with her new pair of shoes. Generally, one of the girls finishes up the call," Kaplan wrote.
Even though Kaplan claims to lack fashion sense, he added that helping a small business grow has always appealed to him, and his work at the company is mostly "nuts and bolts, behind the scene stuff."
Once Merkin met with success in New York, she decided to head to the West coast to offer her bags to celebrities attending the Academy Awards. She traveled to Los Angeles ahead of the ceremonies to promote the one-of-a-kind bags designed for the occasion.
"The gross of the business is supported by that stuff, as our brand gets out there in stores - it all feeds on each other," she said.
Her hope was that Hollywood stars would be photographed with her bags and increase brand recognition for the Lauren Merkin label. Though few Merkin bags made it to the awards, several celebrities were photographed with the purses at Oscar-related parties - a coup for the up-and-coming designer.
Merkin offered her bags to celebrities once again before the Independent Spirit Awards, shortly after the Oscars. At those awards, Merkin ran into another well-known Brown alum - actor Laura Linney '86, who was presenting an award.
"She said she would wear her bag with Brunonian pride," Merkin said.
Months later, Merkin's business continues to grow, and she plans to expand her Manhattan office. "We've had fantastic growth this year. We have the potential to double our sales," she said.
Since Kaplan came on board in January to deal with more operational work, Merkin has had more time to focus on expansion, he wrote.
Yet another Brown alum is helping Merkin with her business - her brother, Brian Goldberg, an architect and adjunct faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, designed her new office.
"I would never have been able to tell you while I was at Brown that I was going to be in the fashion business," Merkin said. "It's funny where life takes you. Even when you're in college you feel like you have to figure (it) all out now, but you don't."
