Bag & Block’s playful bags won over visitors at Who’s Next
In the era of charms, Labubus and endless personalization, Bag & Block perfectly captures the zeitgeist with highly photogenic designs and infinite transformation potential.
We may as well say it: Paloma Hernández has got it all figured out. With her brand Bag & Block, the Spanish designer offers handbags as playful as toys and as spectacular as designer pieces. Each piece is built like a giant Lego, that clients can transform by adding endless combinations of little plastic color blocks.
A Who’s Next Success
The brand was invited to the latest Who’s Next edition by the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla y León, and caught the eye of many visitors. Paloma Hernández said that she received around 40 % existing clients and 60 % prospects, a success that far exceeded her expectations.
“In fashion, it’s pretty rare to see a product with such transformative potential” she says. “I think that’s what made us so successful.” Each Bag & Block piece comes with a set of small, removable blocks, and a tool for assembling them in no time.
A somewhat democratic take on the handbag, which generated a surprising word-of-mouth exposure. “We have great success among women who have children, because they are the ones who spot our bags first. This creates quite a unique customer experience!”
An artistic and inclusive approach
The brand was founded in 2018, but it took Paloma Hernández a lot of time and experimentation to develop viable and robust products that could be easily produced. The designer, who opened her own workshop in 2020, chose to work with people affected by mental illness. “The thing about our designs is that if a mistake is made during production, it can easily be fixed. It allows us to employ people who sometimes need a bit more flexibility and who struggle to find jobs elsewhere.”
A flexible approach to production, for clever products that reflect both the brand and the people wearing them. “Our identity lies in the concept, to which each client can add her own identity.” In other words: a perfect concept for our times.
