507 Origami Tote from Billion Dollar Buyer

A tote designed backward from a price, for a casino gift shop

For the CNBC show Billion Dollar Buyer, I had to solve a problem I had never needed to solve: how to make a good leather bag cheaply enough for a hotel retail store. The 507 Origami Tote was my answer, and its whole design is a decision about where the stitches go.

Video: “Marcellino Briefcase Maker on Billion Dollar Buyer Entire Episode,” Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker on YouTube, May 26, 2016. This is a CNBC broadcast, not my own footage, and it shows the folding method discussed below. The numbers in it are as spoken on the show.

The brief

On the episode, Tilman Fertitta, the chairman and CEO of Landry’s, asked for a line of women’s bags (Golden Nugget). The Golden Nugget in Atlantic City put Marcellino bags on sale at its Style and Trend store on April 6, 2016, a day after the episode aired. A meet-and-greet followed on Saturday, April 9, from 3 to 8 PM, and I made a bag on site, according to the casino’s own press release. The release lists the leathers as vegetable-tanned English bridle, American-raised harness leather and fine Italian calf.

I make briefcases. A briefcase is a long, expensive object, and nothing about my usual method was built for a retail shelf. I needed lower-cost options, and the lowest-cost leather bag is the one with the fewest steps.

The tote

The photos show a tall, rectangular tote in natural tan leather with two long handles, fixed to the body with rivets. On the front sits a single flap pocket, closed with a steel latch.

Origami

On the show I called it the origami folding method. Most bags are parts stitched together. The origami bag is one piece of leather, folded a certain way, with less stitching, and that means less labor. Fertitta called me an innovator on camera.

The name is borrowed with respect. Britannica defines origami as the art of folding paper into two- and three-dimensional figures. Leather is not paper. It stretches, it has a grain, and it does not hold a crease the same way. But the principle carries over: let the shape come from the folds, and the seams have less to do.

My Belladonna crossbody runs on the same idea. A fold replaces seams. Fewer seams mean fewer holes to punch, fewer edges to finish, and less waste, so the bag costs less to make without being made badly.

A tote with a pricing problem

On the episode I walked through the line. One tote, lined in the same leather as the outside, was the most expensive bag in the collection. Lined in suede, I said, the price would come down to $200. He asked if I could do it. I said yes.

That exchange is the real design lesson. A lining is a cost, and a material choice is a price choice. The same tote in two linings is two different products, and I had to decide which one a hotel shopper would buy.

Making it in numbers

The first order discussed on the episode was 350 bags, split among a croc-embossed bag, a large vegetable tan tote and a brown tote, at an average of $200 for $70,000. Fertitta said that would not accomplish what he wanted and asked for 700. As spoken on the show: 700 bags, $140,000.

Later, I had a factory in New York City produce this kind of tote for me, semi-mass produced for smaller boutique stores. The press release says my work is made in my Huntington workshop and at a New York City factory. That is a different way of working from a bespoke briefcase, and the fold is what made it possible.

Sources

• Marcellino Briefcase Maker on Billion Dollar Buyer Entire Episode (Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker, YouTube, May 26, 2016)
• Golden Nugget Atlantic City press release, April 7, 2016 (Golden Nugget)
• Origami (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

How it is made

The latch is the Original Marcellino Latch, which I developed with attorney clients as a strong, quick alternative to a buckle.

The suede is real: see the suede lining page for why I use it instead of microsuede, and the care page for how to look after it.

The bridle leather is described on my leather page, and the journal explains it in What English Bridle Leather Actually Is, and Why Briefcases Are Cut From It.

The seams are hand stitched; see The Saddle Stitch Explained: Hand-Sewing Leather Step by Step for the method.