Mehera Blum: The Creator

GA 2 | Bag Designing

 

The Creator: Ever the artist, actor, painter and designer, Mehera of @ blumera_official sat down with us and told us how she started as an actor, got sick, and then through a series of signs, she went to Bali and became a designer of bags, jewelry, furniture, and clothes. She had no training, no business degree, and no investors. In the past twelve years, her brand, Blumera, has continued to grow. With the death of her mother who she calls her co-creator because of how much of her mother’s work she incorporates into her designers, Blumera has been written up in Forbes and WWD, and she has big things on the horizon.

Listen to the podcast here:

Mehera Blum: The Creator

Isn’t Mehera so beautiful?

She’s stunning but she’s more stunning from this energy, love and light that she brings to any room that she enters.

She’s so composed and yet a dream guest because she was so open. I had all these rapid-fire questions. I asked her questions but she just went from one thing to the next and let her story come out.

She has something very special about her where she’s very composed, but she’s also very vulnerable and she lets you in and shares everything with you. She’s a pretty special woman.

How artistic she is and the bond that she has with her mother.

Don’t get me started. That was so touching.

How her mom’s work informs all of her work. She’s this incredible entrepreneur who started out without any business degree, without any experience and just found her way. I feel that she encompasses what we are inspired by this show.

She was a dream guest. I’m so happy we had her.

I hope you enjoy our interview with Mehera Blum of Blumera.

We have somebody so amazing who I’ve known for a long time and everything about her is so special. We have Mehera Blum, my family friend and real-life friend here with us. She has an incredible line of handbags and jewelry. Did you do furniture for a while?

Not for a while. I just started doing some furniture. It’s almost done. We’re on the colors parts.

I can’t wait to see it. I did not know that.

Every time I speak with Mehera, something new is happening in her world that is cool. It’s always like, “I’m going to design furniture, shoes, clothes, jewelry and bags.” No big deal. Not only are the bags so gorgeous, but they’re also unique. They’re different than anything I’ve ever seen. She works with all different fabrics, wood, metal and they’re incredible. We need to hear how it all happened.

I have a bit of a crazy story. Basically, I was an actress and I got mercury poisoning. I lost my short-term memory. I had to find a side job. It’s long story, but I went on a trip to Bali and it was there that I started thinking, “I could maybe do jewelry.”

This is too interesting already because I have a lot of questions and I’ve known you forever. You went to Boston University and you studied acting. We also both danced. You are a dancer and an actress.

We both went to LAMDA. I went for a little.

What’s LAMDA?

That’s where I went to graduate school. It’s the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Thank you. I’m the uneducated. I don’t know these things.

You’re the person who studied business. That’s a lot more useful than my experience.

You both went there?

Not together, but later in life.

Mehera is a little younger than me. We’ll also talk about our mommies. It’s important that we have that. You went to BU, studied acting and dance, you graduated. How long after your graduation did you get mercury poisoning and were you in LA?

I went to the conservatory program at BU. My morning started at 8:00 AM on the floor doing voice exercises and I would fall asleep. I would always tell my teachers, “I’m just closing my eyes to get the information on a cellular level.” It’s hard to say if the mercury poisoning started then or if I was just tired because any college kid is tired, so I don’t know but mercury can accumulate in the body. I have one of these body types that stored the mercury for whatever reason. I graduated from school, I went to New York, I started working right away as an actor. In retrospect, it’s incredible. You don’t realize it at the time.

Were you doing theater?

I did theater, I did a soap opera for a little while and then I came out to LA right after that. My first job was a KFC commercial. I was the KFC girl.

You were the one that hands over the six-piece?

It was to debut their chicken salad. It didn’t do so well unfortunately.

The chicken salad, not the commercial?

The salad didn’t do so well.

That’s impressive because I have another friend who we’re going to interview on this show, Megan, who is starring in a show but she started in a commercial. That one commercial ran for years and paid for so many things for her. That’s already huge.

GA 2 | Bag Designing
The Power of Intention

I did another commercial for Dibs, the ice cream. That probably started my business in a way. It was a little cushion to be able to have a nest egg a little bit from Dibs.

You did KFC, you did Dibs, you’re killing it in commercials but then you start to feel sick?

It wasn’t that I felt sick. My memory was going so I wasn’t auditioning very well because I couldn’t remember my lines. I was always tired, like chronic fatigue. I couldn’t get out of bed. I was going all crazy stuff. I was looking for signs and I found this doctor. How I was diagnosed is interesting too, this was 2004, 2005 and nobody was talking about mercury poisoning at this point. I had already moved to LA by this point and I was back in New York doing a play. My brother was like, “You should go to a doctor, something’s wrong with you.” You don’t think you can go to a doctor for being tired, “What am I going to say?” I didn’t take it seriously but on the plane back to LA, I sat next to this guy. I barely told him anything. He said, “I have a doctor for you, but you’re going to have to use my name to get in.” One of these LA doctors. In retrospect, he was Michael Jackson’s doctor. Now it’s not very good, but at the time it was impressive.

It’s scary. He was like, “What do you want? I’ll prescribe it. Here you go.”

He was one of the first people to talk about mercury poisoning. I didn’t know at the time that I had it, but when I went in to see him, that was one of the first things he tested for. It was through the roof. He said it was one of the highest he’d ever seen, including in old people. It would accumulate.

How did you get tested?

Blood basically shows what’s acutely there and shows what’s in the tissues.

You are diagnosed with that and then you needed a side job because you couldn’t audition. I believe that this was when we reconnected. We’d known about each other through our mommies. I remember something at the village with friends of mine and then we went out for sushi. You didn’t have sushi because you were avoiding fish because of that. This was when we reconnected. You went on a trip to Bali too.

It was this doctor who gave me that Wayne Dyer book, The Power of Intention. It doesn’t even matter what the book is necessarily about. What happened to me at that point was I started thinking. I’m looking for signs of what to do at that point in my life as I sought a temporary break from acting like I need to figure out what I’m going to do.

I love all those things.

I do all that stuff too for everything.

Signs are real, they come and you should pay attention.

Especially when you’re down and out or looking for it. I feel like it’s so much stronger at that time.

It is when you’re at various different rock bottoms in life or ruts. I think that when those things appear or show themselves, it’s good to listen.

Bali kept coming up randomly in my life and to be honest, I barely knew where it was at that time. It wasn’t on my radar. I had never been there. I didn’t ever talk about it and people kept talking about it. I get an email like, “I’m in Bali for the winter.” Somebody was saying, “You’ve got to go to Bali.” I thought, “Maybe I need to go to Bali.” I was down and my mom was in Iran at the time.

Which we need to talk about because Mondi was born there, and both her parents are from Iran.

What part?

At Tehran.

My mom spent time there and painted there.

We need to talk about that. That’s coming.

She was in Iran and she knew I was down, and she said, “Why don’t you meet me in India?”

A little introduction, you had grown up as I did. We had been to India, both of us many times because our families are very much involved in the same spiritual person. We have made pilgrimages to India throughout, so you had been to India a lot.

It was a very sacred space for me. It’s one of the most magical places on Earth, specifically this place to where we would go to India. It seemed like a great idea. I just had to figure out the logistics of getting there. I talked to the airlines on the way and I thought, “I wonder if I could ask them if I could stop in Bali on the way.” They said, “No, you can’t,” because I was going to use miles. At the time, I was thinking, “How am I going to afford to go? I don’t have any money. I don’t have a job.” Even though I had done the Dibs commercial, but I didn’t know that I want to blow everything. I had frequent-flyer miles and I used the miles. I talked to the woman on the airline. A little side note, the woman gave me business class for the price of an economy ticket. It was one of those blessings, and later I tried to thank her with the bag. I tried to call the airlines because I needed it because I was sick and she was gone. They said, “You couldn’t,” you’d have to force it through, but then I called back and I got this woman, we talked for two hours.

You know that that’s my mother’s life advice always, just hang up and call back.

Signs are real. When they come, you should pay attention. Click To Tweet

If it goes sour get off fast.

She’s like, “They will work against you and when they do that, you say, “Thank you so much, I appreciate your help.” You hang up, you call right back. You just keep calling back until you get the person who’s going to make it happen. It’s the same thing because my mother has zero technology skills, same as I have none either. Her way to fix everything is you just unplug it, you turn it off and when you turn it back on, it will work. That’s her high-tech advice. You called back and somebody said,  “Yes, you can do that.”

She gave me business class and she gave me the whole thing for the price of an economy ticket. There are two different tickets. I don’t even know why I’m going on this part, but it’s just to show the signs.

They’re helping you. They’re trying to open.

Off I went to Bali and I thought, “Maybe I can try to find a little thing to bring in, I can make something.” I thought maybe jewelry. At first, I didn’t know stones well-enough. I thought I’m going to get ripped off, clothes and shoes seem too many sizes.

How long were you planning on staying in Bali?

I was there for two weeks and then I was going to continue on to India.

While you were there, you thought, “Let me try and make something,” because you are so artistic.

I didn’t necessarily think I would make something. I didn’t exactly know what I was going to do. I didn’t have a plan. I was just going.

Was your mom there?

It’s hard to remember.

You’re in your early twenties at this point.

I was completely on my own and I didn’t know a soul. I do remember getting physically lost my very first night there and I was like, “This is it.” I didn’t have a phone, I didn’t have anything but I found my way back. Somehow the inspiration for bags came. I saw some bags and it inspired me.

In the markets there?

It was in a shop. I thought, “If I changed these and tweaked them a little bit.” Let me preface this by saying I had no intention to start a brand to any of this.

You were going to read Wayne Dyer, meet your mommy and heal.

When I saw these bags, I thought, “I could do this. I bring them back in and sell them.” I did make contact with someone through the shop and they took me to their factory. It was like out of a movie, this woman has this cigarette, she’s like, “You want to do bags?” She’s taking drags from her cigarette. I said, “Yes.” She said, “You can buy these but you have to buy a minimum of 100.”

It sounds expensive.

I’m scared in this random back alley. I’m not going to give cash for 100 bags.

You’re planning on changing them entirely anyway.

I would have her change it for me, but I was not ready to commit to this. I just said, “Thanks so much,” and I left. The girl who took me to that place on the motorbike got my contact and she’s very entrepreneurial. By this point, I’m in India.

You spent the time in Bali, you saw bags, you were inspired, then you went to go meet your mom and thought that was it.

GA 2 | Bag Designing

 

I maybe bought one or two, maybe I was still thinking about it. When I was in India, the motorbike girl emailed me and said, “I’ll take the order from you and you don’t have to have a minimum. You can make whatever you want.” I started working with this girl and that’s how it started.

That’s several years ago. I say it because what you’ve built is amazing. Did you start with one collection?

Yes, a couple of bags.

Were they leather or fabric?

It wasn’t even a collection. I did not have this force. There was a leather bag and there was a fabric bag with a bamboo handle. There were a couple of different bags. It was cute. One quick cool thing was when I was in India, I had an inspiration. You know how the Yogi Bhajan teas have little quotes on them? I was like, “That would be cool to have a little inspirational quote like fortune cookies in the bags.” That came to me when I was in India and so now all the bags have those. There are a couple of things that came to me right away that I’ve stuck with, and I also wanted to name the bags after inspirational souls, inspirational people in my life.

You have a few bags, where do you start selling them?

There was no plan. There was no anything.

You’re paying for everything with Dibs’ money?

Yeah. There was no investment. There are no startup costs to it besides my trip, which was miles and a free business class upgrade. What happened was during that time, I did Big Momma’s House 2. My other critically acclaimed movie.

I had a boyfriend in college who made me watch Big Momma’s House 1 for 100 times. It was all about Big Momma’s House. I dated him.

I almost didn’t bring this part up, but I’m glad I did it. This is also around the same time. I don’t think my bags were actually in the scene, but they’re there.

Did you ask for that?

I probably said to the costume designer. I’m telling you there was no plan.

I love that there was no plan.

What happened was I would use the bags. I lived near Robertson in LA. I was walking down the street and what would happen is people just ask me, “Where did you get that?” I would say, “I sell them.” That’s how I would get orders is people would stop me.

It speaks for your work and it speaks for the whole picture because you are always so beautifully put together. Everything you wear is colorful, which I love, your jewelry. Mehera and Mondi are tiny people. I have these mini people and you both are, but you are so well put together and everything’s always colorful. It’s like watching a flower walk down the street. It doesn’t surprise me that people would stop you because it’s not just your colorful bags, it’s your jewelry, whatever you’ve put together. You have this dark, beautiful hair. I would stop you too if I didn’t know you. People would stop you and get orders, which by the way, that’s also a mega sign.

Here’s another thing too that happened, also within this timeframe, I just came back. I barely had a website. I barely had a name for the company.

We should say what the name of your company is. It’s Blumera and your name is Mehera Blum. Blumera to me also sounds like a flower.

It’s almost like plumeria. Even how I got the website is amazing. You’re making me remember these things that I forgot about. I remember walking into a restaurant and the host was a woman and she said, “I love your bag.” I gave her my info and I think she asked me, “Do you have a website or something?” I can’t remember it if I said it. I don’t think I had a website yet. The next thing I know, I get an email or call from her boyfriend asking me if he can make a website for me in exchange for a bag or two. I said, “Okay.” This guy wasn’t just any guy. He went on to do Disney’s websites, Apple. Now I could never get him.

It’s the flight to Bali, the person who drove you to the back alley bag lady and now the website.

Also within that time frame, a friend of mine who I knew from acting was launching a website and she had Jessica Alba and Eva Mendez hosted. Almost before even any other people, they were the first ones wearing the bags.

That’s a huge endorsement.

They hosted it, there are all these pictures of them. There’s all this press with them. They’re out and about wearing them. They’re getting photographed by paparazzi. You ask about how I sold things. Somebody told me, “Why don’t you do the Melrose, Fairfax Farmer’s Market?” I had a little stand there. To back up a little, maybe a week or two before that, I got an order from a store in Chicago and I said, “How did you hear about my bags?” She goes, “From a magazine.” I said, “What magazine?” She said, “Life &and Style.” This is dumb. I didn’t even know where to get Life & Style. I went to the bookstore and I’m looking for it. I’m flipping through, there’s a full page of what Eva Mendez was wearing and how you could get the look. There was a blurb about the Blumera bag and it told what it was. It told the price, told all of it. Sure enough, this girl was ordering that bag when she saw the magazine. That’s the only reason I found out that it was in there. Cut to this flea market, I had this little booth, I have a couple of bags set up and I had that little picture, the press from the magazine. I had it framed on the table. A woman walks by and she goes, “I wrote that article on you.”

It's different when you're two physical bodies; the mother-daughter relationship is its own thing. Click To Tweet

This is when you’re meant to do the things. It just opens it up. Here you go, breadcrumbs.

To show you how little of a plan I had, I didn’t even get her name, her contact info. There was nothing.

In this time, you had two bags, people bought the two bags. How are you making more bags?

I had a couple more. I must have ordered a few more. My principle is, “You sell one, you make two. You sell two, you make four.” I was building little by little.

How long does it take for you to get the bags?

I was doing it by air. The shipping time was fast.

Were they being made in Bali still?

They were being made in Bali with this woman and that was a whole other thing. I had to graduate from that because I was always so afraid the bags are going to fall apart, which actually then pushed me forward later on because later on I had the resolve that I’m going to go back to Bali. I’m going to start my own little workshop and to make everything from scratch. I’m going to make sure that the quality is impeccable because that was very important to me. The fact that her quality wasn’t so incredible galvanized the tip.

She said, “I wrote that article.”

I just said, “Thank you.” Now I know you get the person’s name and then you keep them updated.

You didn’t even need to.

Back then too it wasn’t like what it is now.

There was no Instagram.

That’s when the weeklies were important, these magazines. These were shopping magazines.

Your business is growing little by little, slowly but surely. When did you open that gorgeous shop?

I think that was 2010 and that was random. I was in a restaurant on Melrose near where I lived and these girls were trying to get me to come over and see their shop.

Where you at Urth?

I was at Le Pain. They said, “There’s another shop.” They knew I did bags but I just met them that day. I said, “Why don’t you have a store in this shop right here?” It wasn’t great. It was a setback and you couldn’t get there.

Maybe it wasn’t great but you and your mom made it.

Later, but when we first saw it you couldn’t get there, but they talked me into and I thought, “It would be a great idea. Let’s see.” I went to Peru. The Peruvian government will sponsor certain people because they want to encourage manufacturing there. They sponsored me.

Did they contact you again?

They did.

How did they find you?

GA 2 | Bag Designing

 

I have no idea. I guess they just saw up and coming brands. They probably knew that I manufactured overseas and thought I’d be a good candidate for what they were doing. It’s true, Peruvian things are incredible. I went and it was strange. I was there for a few days and it kept slipping out like, “I’m about to open a store.” I had not decided to open a store, but it kept coming out on my mouth. When I came back to LA, I was like, “Maybe I’ll open it.” They gave me very good terms. I could do this month to month thing. It was fine. I did it and when my mom saw the space, she was like, “Are you crazy? You’re going to take that? I can’t believe you’re going to take this place.”

You could see it from the street. It was right on Melrose in that design corner where everything is but you had to step back.

It’s Restoration Hardware. That’s what it is. It’s directly across from Urth. What happened was there was an alley that connected to the front of my store and it was filled with dumpsters, trash and all kinds of stuff. I asked the landlord who owned the whole street. I said, “Can I clean out that alley and make an entrance to my store?” He said, “Okay.” We cleared out the alley and got rid of the dumpsters and got rid of everything, put pavers down. I painted them my magenta pink, that’s my store color. We planted hundreds and hundreds of plants, bougainvillea, jasmine, creeping fig.

It was like walking into an enchanted secret garden.

We did like a tunnel so that you walked through and it had these solar lanterns so at night it would light up and it was beautiful. That was good because that was literally when you’re standing on Urth, it was straight across. That was like this little magic. People would walk down and say, “What’s back here?”

You had the store for how long?

I had the store for three years.

In that time, your business is growing.

I would have kept the store, but there was one unfortunate incident. I was on a month-to-month and the reason why it was benefiting them is they were trying to get Restoration Hardware in there. Because of zoning issues and all kinds of stuff, they couldn’t. I was in Boston, I was doing some consulting work and I got a phone call, “Your time’s up, you have to move out.” The alley alone had hundreds and hundreds of flowers but the whole space, the front, the back, it had succulents and all kinds of stuff. We had two hummingbirds that used to live in the garden and it was beautiful. For my mom, she came and flowers are her life. She loved the gardens, so for her she had a field day. She lived in South Carolina and California was a dream for her because many plants grew here, things that she couldn’t grow. It was divine timing though, and I’ll tell you why because when the landlord said time is up, what happened was my mother got sick with breast cancer. She had already had breast cancer but it came back. She was on the East Coast. Because of the timing of the store closing, I was able on a whim fly to see her. I thought maybe for a week and I didn’t realize to the extent how sick she was, I wound up never leaving her. That week I went for a weekend and then stayed for six months. I came back, sold my car, packed up my place, put it in the storage. Thank God I didn’t have the store because it would have been way too stressful and the guilt. You know how you handle that. It was truly a divine design.

You handled it in one of the most beautiful ways I’ve ever seen. You went and took care of your mommy for a few years.

That was the greatest gift for me.

Your mommy passed away in December of 2015. I know your mother as an incredible painter, gardener, plant person. We should talk about how much her work has influenced your work. I have a painting of your mother’s in my home. It’s beautiful.

My mother and I, we saw things in the world creatively, very similarly. I would say that we had the same sight, especially for color and for creation. In fact, when I was doing my store, we would get in fights and they’re silly. I remember I was going to get door knobs for the door and we both saw this door knob and we both wanted it. It was an emerald door and we got it, and then later it was a huge fight about who picked it out, whose idea is it. We had this beautiful moment. I think she had the realization because we also got in a fight about something very similar. She said, “I just realized we had the same idea, the exact same time.” She knew she had good taste. She was confident, she understood beauty, she understood these things. It was a big thing for her to share that and realize, “You also.”

You and your mom fought over the doorknobs.

For inspiration, she would do a painting, and if I wasn’t physically with her, we would FaceTime. I would give her my opinion. The same thing with my bags, I would say, “What do you think?” We were each other’s creative soundboards in many ways, but definitely creatively. We trusted each other.

I have always felt ever since I reconnected with you and saw your mom there with you in the space and then her paintings would come to life in your bags. You have called yourself twin souls with her.

That’s what I realized. These things come to you later. It’s different when you’re two physical bodies, the mother-daughter relationship is its own thing.

It’s a complicated, beautiful mess.

Ours changed because I became her mom at the end, taking care of her. I was her full-time caregiver 24/7. It was like having a baby.

During the period where you were taking care of her, you were doing trunk shows.

Only when she was well enough. With cancer, it’s an ebb and flow. When she was well, I was working. When she wasn’t, I was there taking care of her.

We should talk about wood bags. It was a collection of paintings based on gardens in Iran, in Tehran?

In Shiraz, in the Garden of Paradise, which she said was the most beautiful place on Earth.

When you're at various different rock bottoms in life or ruts, it's good to listen. Click To Tweet

Your mother traveled to Iran by herself, which you’ve also carried that mantle and continued. You travel everywhere by yourself, Thailand, Bali, India, all alone, hire scooters by yourself. Was your mother in Shiraz just to be there and to travel?

She had always wanted to go to Iran. She had a great love of Iran and she was always looking for her inner garden since she was a little girl. She loved all things Persian. She learned to speak Farsi, not fluently, but she spoke it pretty well. She could sing songs in Farsi.

It’s a very hard language to learn even as an adult.

She was taken with anything Persian. Even the style of painting Persian miniature. She became very close to the most famous Persian miniatures artist and he asked her to do a painting that she did, which actually became to the birds.

That’s a painting that I have. I have a print of it, it’s a gorgeous painting but it’s stunning. How long was she in Iran?

I forget how many times, but she would stay for several months.

She did a collection of paintings.

She had a show, I’ll say it because it’s worth noting. Do you know Hafez, the Persian poet? She was the only artist in history to have ever painted there and then to be given a show there. That’s quite an honor.

How is it related to Hafez?

At his shrine.

She had a show there and had maybe ten paintings?

Maybe 20, 30. I don’t know, a lot. She painted prolifically. When she was in Iran, she did a lot of paintings.

Have you kept her work?

Yes, she had sold a few. My brother and I have her work.

There’s another one I have my eye on. I like all of them but there’s a Siberian tiger that I need. Your mother has this beautiful collection of paintings based on these gardens, and you after her death?

I was trying to recreate her paintings through embroidery and I did it and she loved it, but I didn’t perfect it until quite recently. I did do a collection of bags of her Rose and the Nightingale painting, which I called the same name. It’s printed on canvas. She knew I was making it and it arrived two hours after she passed away.

The first wood carve or the embroidered one?

No, the canvas.

When did you start with the wood?

The wood came after she passed away. I went to Bali and I was doing work for Fortnum & Mason in London. I had done a collection of crystal embroidered bags for them. I told the buyer I had this idea to do a woodcarving for a door but as a clutch. She goes, “How soon can you do it?” I said, “If I go right now, I can do it by September.” With their prompting, I went to Bali and I did this woodcarving and I did it based on her Rose and the Nightingale painting.

You also have painting skills because I’ve seen you have an amazing reel with things which people should watch on the website of your travels and a little bit of the incredible work that goes into all the bags.

How did you learn to paint and embroider? Did you have that innately in you?

I think it’s from my mom, it’s passed down. The embroidery, I learned on the job, if you will. That’s too long of a story. I was taken in by a master, one of the most famous, he’s from the French lineage of royal embroidery houses. I had a dinner party one night in India and I had gone and became friends with him. A couple of years later, I said I’m working on this project and I want to bring my mom’s art to life. He said he was taken and he wanted to help me.

GA 2 | Bag Designing

 

You go to Bali, you are doing this for Fortnum & Mason and then you’re bringing your mother’s garden paintings to life, which are stunning. The bags are beautiful. There are ovals and rectangles and there is wood and I want all of them, and one day they will be mine. I also want to say because I feel that since your mother passed away, your work has gone bigger, better. You became focused, crystallized and you’re expanding so much and all these well-deserved. It’s like magic opportunities have come your way. You’ve told me that you feel your mommy more than ever with you in your work.

I call it co-creation. I feel her as though we’re one creating.

Do you feel that since she passed away, you feel closer to her?

There’s this idea that how can you miss something that you are, and that’s what it feels like.

She’s always with you.

It’s not like another soul or spirit that’s with me. I actually feel as though we’re one.

That’s the part where I think you’re on to it. That’s the thing. I feel that’s the secret, but I don’t think you can get there until you get there.

If you asked me that several years ago, I would have said no. I didn’t think I could survive. It was always a fear of mine as a little girl that something would happen to my mom. I never would have thought I would have been able to survive it. I thought that would be the end to me.

I feel that ever since she did pass away, your work, your company and your business has grown exponentially and the best things are happening. I know that I can’t say who, but Mehera has a big deal company that she’s designing bags for. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen the prototypes and they’re amazing. I can’t wait until we can talk about who it is, but I won’t. I feel that all the mediums you work in, whether it’s leather, canvas, wood or metal also. Is it different every time?

Yes. It’s coming and all different colors of metal.

It’s the best story ever for me because when I remember when you left and you went to go take care of your mom and I would think of you often. To be taking care of your mother because my husband had that when his mommy was sick. It’s one of the scariest thoughts for me to physically have to take care of your parent in a way that you do your baby. Then Art has also told me it was one of the best times of his life and that he’s so grateful that it happened like that. He feels it was an honor and a privilege that he got to.

I felt the same. It was probably one of the greatest blessings of my life.

Do you act anymore?

I haven’t in a long time.

I need to talk about this. Amongst all the things I love about your company is that you are the face, the model, the brand. You model them all on the website. If you haven’t seen her, she’s beautiful. Maybe you have seen her because you know the brand. I told you that I was so happy you are the model for your company and you said you were thinking about hiring someone else or looking at people, and I don’t think you should.

I second that. Now that I’ve met you in person.

You need to wear all your wares.

Thank you.

Will you continue to do that please?

Yes, I give my oath and blood.

Are you traveling anywhere far-flung, exotic and cool?

Potentially another trip to Bali is on the horizon.

It’s Bali still where your workshop is?

Bali and Italy. I work in Italy and India for embroidery.

You go to all the places, work with all the artisans, find all the people, source all the materials, everything yourself. I do know this about you. You have all the artisans but she’s a one-woman show on the business side. She does everything herself.

We’ll see if that changes.

Eventually down the line. The fact that you’ve juggled all of that and come up with a career when the side hustle has become the hustle. You didn’t go to fashion school, you didn’t study how to make bags or business, look at you. I feel like we can do these things. We can do entrepreneurial, artistic things.

It’s a true inspirational story and thank you for sharing it with us.

Thank you for being on our show. I love you.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great.

You have to come back when we can say the name of the company.

Thanks, Mehera. I love you.

If you are interested in looking at Mehera’s stunning work, you should go to her website, which is Blumera.com. She’s on IG at @Blumera_Official. She has gotten pretty special press. She was written up by Forbes as a Millennial to Watch. She was also written up by Women’s Wear Daily. You were chosen from a show that you did in Paris because your work is so phenomenal. You should go check out Mehera in all the mediums and all the various ways that you can and you should buy bags because people will stop you on the street. Thanks.

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About Mehera Blum

GA 2 | Bag DesigningTraveling the globe, Mehera Blum of Blumera, delves deep into the culture and innate skills of foreign lands to create one-of-a-kind hand-sculpted pieces.

Beyond the design, incredible handcraft, vibrant colors, and exotic materials, clients often remark that there is an unusual, almost intangible, essence that is Blumera’s signature mark.

Some call it Love.

Mehera defines herself as a creator, and it is this magic of creation that inspires her.

Blum states, “The inception of the design begins with a spark of inspiration, which comes to me in a visual flash, this energy must take shape and this is creativity: bringing form to living energy.”

Though most of her pieces are handcrafted in Los Angeles, she designs and makes special pieces and collections the world over – whenever and wherever the inspirational spark is set aflame.

 

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