Today we’d like to introduce you to Asia Banks-Franklin.
Hi Asia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a Detroit native, I’ve always been a go-getter when it comes to achieving goals. Long before I was a handbag designer, I was a baker and the owner of Tootsie B Bakery. After that, I dabbled in photography and creating personalized gifts but none of those hobbies stuck. As time progressed, I recognized that I needed to shift my mindset and fully invest in myself by going to college.
I always had a passion for design and my time at Full Sail University helped mold the craft that was destined for me. In March of 2021, I graduated with my bachelor’s in Graphic Design. Utilizing these tools and experiences as a designer, I started to play around with sketching handbags and book bags. I found a manufacture that could bring my sketches and measurements to life.
A lot of the things I did were based off of trial and error but I eventually birth Von-Lee and Company as a handbag business. The name stems from my mother’s middle name and “Company” represents all the things that I’m skilled at doing.
Von-Lee’s main focus is to provide affordable luxury to the everyday person. As a self-taught designer, I have created a total of 12 bags that range from different shapes and sizes. Entrepreneurship has always been my number one goal and the plan is to continue to inspire thousands of people every day.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Heck no the road has not been smooth. I am a nine to five that owns multiple businesses has also a full-time student. Each day I work at least 18-20 hours a day, of course, I take breaks here and there but I really wouldn’t trade this life for anything. I learned a lot of things by trail and error and I didn’t realize how important contracts were when it came to working with manufactures overseas. My first go around with a few manufactures didn’t involves contracts and I actually had a manufacture use one on my designs and sell it in their catalogue. I never came out with that bag because I didn’t want people to discredit me if they saw that particular bag in a manufactures catalogue. This taught me to have a contract in place with every manufacturer in the future to avoid me missing out on profit and big manufactures stealing my work.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Von-Lee and Company?
Von-Lee is a handbag business that specializes in designing signature one-of-a-kind pieces. We currently only utilize vegan leather goods for all of our products. I’m proud that even though VLC is a new company we found success through TikTok. We started off at only 43 followers to a total of 14k supporters with consistent sales.
The thing that sets me apart from others is that I’m a one-person team. I do all of the designing from the logos and the packaging to designing every bag including every pattern. I knew that designing was a strong gift that I had but I was fearful that my future target audience wouldn’t like it. I choose to only outsource for photography because I love being a creative director for shoots.
One thing that I love to is give advice to aspiring entrepreneurs on my lives. My goal is to never gatekeep and to give people everything that they need to know before starting their business. By the end of 2022, I plan on having designing packages for entrepreneurs looking to have unique bag designs.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I vow to never charge more than $350 for any vegan leather good. I do that because I know what I am willing to pay for a luxury bag and I wanted to keep that relatability.
Pricing:
- Cadiuex $250
- Retro $250
- Belle $150
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vonleeandcompany.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vonleeandcompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VonLeeandCo
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/vonleeandcomp
Image Credits
Photographers: Jasmine Lawrence and CJ Heart Studios
