Lia Cinquegrano is not a black bag kind of girl. “I saved up some money and really wanted to spend it on a bag,” explains the RISD grad from Sarasota, Florida. “So I was looking, shopping in the market, trying to find a bag that represented me and would go with my style sensibility, and I couldn’t really find anything. I knew it had to be something bright and colorful, and I knew I had to keep it simple. That was about a year ago.” Unlike most of us, Lia had the skills to take on this task herself: On top of her degree, she had five years experience at Nanette Lepore, where she had gained some solid insight into the production side of things.

She dove into the development of her first pieces—soon to be called Thomas IV—working from an old school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she was renting space in to explore creative side projects. Soon enough, she landed on that look she was trying to pin down: a combination of fabric and leather

with lots of structure and little-to-no hardware. For her first collection for spring 2011, she played with ikats (woven specially for her in Guatemala), and from there, she’s ventured into oversize houndstooths, denim-y stripes, and the kind of bold Hawaiian prints you can’t imagine on a purse until you see them.

The other key feature of her bags: They are not ginormous things meant to tote heels and umbrellas and multiple hand lotions. That’s not the Lia way: “Phone, wallet, mascara, lip gloss, keys—I don’t carry much.”

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