Casauri, a Florida-based business, has been selling attractive bags for business (e.g. laptop bags), predominantly targeting women for 10 years.  Back when the company started in the late 1990s, laptop bags, beyond ”basic black” were hard to find.  Emily McHugh was an MBA student at Columbia when her sister, Helena, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology  made Emily a bag which got a great deal of attention.  It was at that time that Emily decided to team up with her sister and use the bag for one of her class projects.  This project eventually led Casauri.

The name Casauri, is taken from two words.  The “ca” part comes from the French word caméléon while the “sauri” comes from the reptile family, sauria.  This, according to their website, reflects the company’s “capacity to change, evolve, and grow.” The Casauri bag itself has a classical feel, but yet, goes beyond dull.  It comes in many vibrant colours (including orange, green and purple) as well as patterns (stripes seem to be popular).  There are also a variety of different sizes, accomodating small, 8.9′ netbooks to large 17″ laptops (their best-seller is the laptop brief (the white case below is one of the laptop briefs)).  In addition to laptop bags, Casauri also sells carry-on luggage and other accessories, such as iPod, business card and passport cases.  There are future plans to become a “full lifestyle brand, complimentary to the mobile contemporary lifestyle.”

Emily on working with her sister and whether they would have thought this would happen as kids:

Not at all, but ironically enough is that since we have done most everything together almost since birth, it feels natural to work together. But our work styles are very different as we both have strong opinions on things, but in the end we reach consensus.

On who inspires her:

There are some fashion icons that I find extremely inspiring both from the fashion and business sense – Giorgio Armani is a master on all fronts and I like the eclectic style of Paul Smith. In terms of a “home-grown” company that became an international brand, Kate Spade, certainly serves as inspiration.

On challenges they faced over the last ten years:

We faced all kinds of challenges, and we still do, but now we are better equipped to handle them and the challenges evolve with time. That is a guarantee for any business, there will always be some type of challenge – that’s normal.  There is always a need for more capital, more sales, more of everything, so what we learn is how to manage the resources that we have and acquire enough to keep moving us to the next level.

Tips for people who want to go into the fashion/accessories business:

I would encourage people to pursue an idea that they feel has long-term market viability and be willing to change as market forces change. Resisting change is an exercise in futility. It’s critical to think big and to dream, but make sure you are firmly grounded in reality. The fashion business is not as glamourous as many people think. It has a veneer of glamour, but underneath is serious hard work that requires dedication and military discipline. There are many classes and online resources for people to learn more about the details of starting a fashion company, so the more one is educated in what is involved the better.

Casauri is available in many stores all over the world.  For more information about stores, please visit their list here.