Women Talk Sci Fi Podcast 35 ~ A Little Byte of Angel ~ Mark Lutz Interview
Rock Angel Wings interview
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Transcript of Rock Angel Wings interview
Even amongst the Camden hipsters swirling the tube station, Laura-‐Jamie Edginton has made sure that we can spot her. The co-‐founder of designer handbag brand Rock Angel Wings (RAW) has thrown on a black leather jacket, a red bandana to hold down her fringe and the final touch of a single feather earring, which could only be credited to a not so secret love of Mr. T. She looks as if she fancies herself a bit of a rock star and even dabbles in drumming, but unless you pry it out of her you wouldn’t know that her company is out to be more exclusive than Louis Vuitton and that Johnny Depp is next in line for their one of their customized pieces. Even as she awaits her green tea outside a little Italian restaurant she mutters how she wishes her partner Amber Creagh were there because she would have better answers for us. Instead, Laura-‐Jamie believes in letting the beautifully handmade leather satchels and accessories bearing their trademark guns and angel wings speak for themselves.
Your line is influenced by the Hispanic religious art and culture in LA. Was that something that just got under your skin being there or did you have a eureka moment in front of a shrine of sorts?
L J: Just the whole of downtown of LA inspired us. Walking through the city you pass all the graffiti with the Virgin Marys and Lady Guadalupes. It’s just so colourful. Amber and I loved walking down all the back alleys….
Two blondes wandering the back alleys of LA. Very sensible. So you never came across a strapping ponytailed Mexican man who blessed you with an epiphany?
Haha. No, nothing quite so spiritual. We just lived around the art and embodied it. We travelled through southern California in 2005 and fell in love with LA. We were on our
way to Sandiego but never made it.
Do you think you would've ended up doing something similar to RAW without inspiration from the city of angels? Has London been a bit neglected in the creative process?
Yes and no. We actually thought of the company here. Amber’s nan made her this leather satchel when she was three in a country western design, which is what these bags typically are. It’s so worn out and beautiful and soft. One day we were sitting in Amber’s room and she came up with the idea to make bags like her grandmother’s but with tattoo designs on these traditional bags. Because of my
Designers Laura-‐Jamie Edginton and Amber Creagh
“This Beverly Hills shaman [….] We slept on his table for awhile…”
INTERVIEW BY MONICA TAVARES
PHOTOS BY ROCK ANGEL WINGS
Christian background I came up the idea of with including Biblical quotes on the back. We started looking up quotes and instead of finding really religious ones we looked for ones about faith and love and hope, things that anyone can relate to. We did start making them in LA because the leather was cheaper and the sun on the patio was nice as opposed to the impossible London rain. So it would’ve happened here but the concept was really embraced by LA because there was already a basis for this religious art. We’ve had to amend our company a bit in the UK because people aren’t really into the religious quotes but prefer more lyrics or movie quotes. Confucius does well here too. I must read more of him.
Did Amber always know the technique or did you learn another way?
Well Amber’s mum knew and she taught her some basics when she was a kid. But then we went to this place called Tandy in Hollywood and the guy gave us a 20 minute tutorial. He taught Amber how to carve and me how to stamp letters and we came back a week later with a satchel which he thought we had just bought off of Melrose Avenue! It was our first ever bag and he couldn’t believe we’d done
it in a week. He said we had talent and we were just so happy. We were lucky to do the workshop because it wasn’t that expensive but we had no money and that means everything is expensive. It felt like we were meant to do this. Every bag somehow works even if we fuck it up. Once I got a bit carried away with the hole puncher and went all the way around a piece which should’ve ruined this custom bag. We just re-‐laced it and now we do that on a lot of our satchels.
You have a tattoo of the trademark guns and angel wings. Did you have that before the brand was formed?
Hmmm. We didn’t have much money but I had enough for a tattoo. Not sure how that works but my friend recommended I have it done through Baby Ray who usually has a 6 or 7 month waiting list. I walked in 6:30am wanting little guns and wings on my wrists which Amber had drawn from an idea I had. I’ve been terrified of guns since I was a kid and I’ve always had vivid dreams where I get shot. I’m just convinced that’s how I’m going to die… makes you wonder why I ended up in downtown LA. Anyway, the original design looked a bit like a butterfly and it wasn’t exactly what I had wanted but I love that we have the drawing to this day. I didn’t realize Baby Ray was actually the most
famous tattoo artist EVER and that he wouldn’t do this tiny thing because it’s all about the art for him. He simply refused me. Then I just decided to go with whatever he wanted so he redid the design to a massive size that actually should’ve wrapped around my hips. I loved what he did with the design so much and when we talked to him about our bags he just said that the design was ours if we wanted it for our logo.
What message do you have on your personal piece?
“To dust you are and to dust you will return.” I chose it because when we were in LA there were so many people that think they’re better than you, but at the end of the day you can’t take it with you.
You recently commissioned bags for Kate Moss and Jamie Hince (The Kills). How did that come about?
We were lucky to have a connection through some friends and so we gave Kate some samples which she absolutely loved, but then we didn’t hear anything for about four months. Then our friend came back to us saying that Kate and Jamie had gotten matching anchor tattoos which they wanted on the front. The design was so simple at first because that’s all they wanted. We gave her a list of
20 quotes which she didn’t like, but then she gave us some lyrics from one of Jamie’s songs “Cheap and Cheerful” (I want you to be crazy 'coz you're boring baby when you’re straight) to put on the back. So now we’re just on the lookout for some pictures. We’ve also recently been commissioned by Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee after running into their manager in LA. We had been trying to get a bag to Tommy Lee since we started the company. He was the first person we thought had to have one. As soon as we get enough money for leather… we don’t have any money at the moment. Ridiculous.
What would you like RAW to become? Would you want the wide availability that other designer handbag successes, or would you prefer to stay exclusive and still sit on the floor with Amber and bits of cow?
It’s kind of up in the air at the moment because we had this idea of what we wanted and it was going to go off track a couple of months ago when we were going to have to make 80 bags for Duran Duran. 80 for the whole crew! But then that fell through because we would’ve had to have them mass produced. That kind of destroyed us because we didn’t want to do that so soon. Our idea is to create this image of a celebrity lifestyle brand. Everybody has been saying we have to get them mass produced and make money, but we don’t want to make that much money at the moment. We would rather people have something that is so personal and that will last a lifetime. Eventually what we want to do is carry on with the customizing but then do another line called “RAW” which is massed produced. So it would be in
the same style but not the same quality. We’re still thinking it through though because obviously we know the Rock Angel Wings bags will last an entire life, as tried and tested by Amber’s nan. Me and Amber have never wanted to be super duper rich or anything, we just wanted to do something we loved and make a bit of money and make…. things that make people happy. Seeing someone appreciate what we do is fantastic. When were out and wearing our cuffs, if someone talks about it for long enough I’ll just take it off and give it to them. Amber and I can’t make cuffs last for more than three days.
Have you been back to your design Mecca recently?
We went back to visit a couple of weeks ago actually. We saw our old partners in a company called Silverlake who really believed in what we were starting back in the day. Its run by this crazy Beverly Hills shaman called Durek Verrett. He’s amazing. He had some of our bags left over from the last project we did and he told us to take them back because they had our aura and they belonged to us. We used to make our bags by his pool in LA because he took us in when we had nowhere else to stay. We slept on his table for awhile until he asked us to sleep in his bed to keep the night demons away from him. He’s just fantastic. I mean, this is a man who would wake us up at 2am
saying “I’ve got a new song…. My pocket calculator/my pocket calculator/I’m calculating one/I’m calculating two/I’m calculating me and you….” He does know he’s a wackjob though so I don’t feel like I have to worry about him.
What’s the division of labour between you and Amber?
It’s exactly the same. She does the carving and I do the stamping. We just make them together little bit by little bit. We actually haven’t learned to do each other’s jobs. Amber went to art college so there are things she does better. I am artistic but I can’t draw. My version of drawing a person is hilarious. One time we came back from California and we were a bit bored so we drew people we knew from LA and guessed who they were. Amber would have tears falling down her face laughing at my pictures, but she could always guess who it was because she knows my train of thought. We’ve known each other for 9 years but we’ve only been friends for 5. We’re from the same place but I hated her. She used to come into the Pizza Express where I worked wearing badges with her face on them….
Says the grown woman wearing a sheriff’s badge.
Hollywood Sherriff to you. ■
rockangelwings.com