Flingly magazine

The PS1 design from Proenza Schouler has proven to be a stayer bag among fashionistas worldwide. It was the first bag the designer duo Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez ever designed, and the story behind it is quite exciting.

You find the highlights here:

• Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are the designers behind Proenza Schouler, founded in 2002. Proenza Schouler are their mothers´ maiden names.
• Jack and Lazaro met while studying at Parsons School of Design. Their senior thesis, which they collaborated on, would eventually become their first collection as Proenza Schouler.
• Proenza Schouler designed the PS1 bag in 2008. It was supposed to be an anti IT-bag. They wanted to make something that would last, not a passing fad.
• The bag had no logo and the designers tried to design a low-key anonymous bag. They did not show it on the runway, as an attempt to transcend the seasons.
• They designed it for ”only the ones that knows what it is, knows what it is”, like a secret language between the women that knew, an under the radar status symbol.
• The first prototype was produced in collaboration with quality crafts people in Italy.
• While finalizing their satchels' designs, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez secretly enlisted a handful of close female friends to take them on test runs around town. When asked about the bag, the girls said it was something they came over, a vintage piece.
• Bloggers ”discovered” the PS1 bag in 2010, and it became widely distributed on blogs and on different social platforms. PS1 became almost overnight the new must-have item for fashionistas. Jack and Lazaro has since declared that ”Fashion Bloggers Create an Extraordinary Impact”
• The PS1 satchel has since developed into numerous sizes, versions, and colours. Today the design is also available as wallet, iPad case, purse, clutch and tote, among others.
• A PS1 satchel cost around $1.200 +.
• There has been som buzz about the likeness between the PS1 satchel and the Mulberry Alexa bag, after the latter was first sighted during fall 2009.
• Today the PS1 satchel has become Proenza Schouler´s signature design.

Sources:

• Proenza Schouler
• Wikipedia
• Youtube
• Independent Fashion Bloggers
• Net a Porter