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In a world that values growth and the pursuit of the next bigger, better, faster thing, I wanted to build something high quality, slow, meaningful, and personal.
What began as 300 bags stacked in my living room for a year has since grown into both a considered collection and a shared worldview. And seven years later, we’re still working toward the same goal: to make thoughtful bags that work beautifully.
Every detail is considered, from the weight of a bag and pocket depth, to how it feels on your shoulder and how naturally it becomes part of your daily routines.
We care just as deeply about how we build as what we build, and hope to leave a positive impact on every pair of hands involved along the way.
Freja has been self-funded from the beginning, which allows us to do things our way, at our pace.
Freja is for women going somewhere. Wherever that may be, I hope we can make something worth bringing with you.
PS - I also write building freja on my substack.
Freja was born during an especially stressful night of interview prep. It was 1am and I had turned my closet inside out trying to find a sleek tote for the most important interview of my life, that would also fit a change of clothes for an event afterwards. I came up empty, and started dreaming.
"But does the world need another handbag brand?"
I went back and forth over that question for weeks. Much of fashion is an unsustainable cycle of excess and waste and exploitation, but it doesn’t have to be. And I knew as the sole decision maker of a small brand that was starting fresh, that I could do things my way - and maybe even leave a net positive on the world.
One month later, I picked up our first sample from a NYC-based sample maker. It cost $2,000 and looked like an amateur sewing project. The next few samples were somewhat improved, but not by much.
Important lessons were learned. Certain colors look better on certain finishes. Certain linings work better with different materials. Do we choose a softer vegan leather that feels more luxurious, or a stiffer one that ships well and will hold its shape better? And that's just the beginning. Weight of materials, size of pockets, depth of pockets, strap length, stitching vs gluing, zippers vs buttons, how the bag sits when empty, how the bag feels when filled…it takes so much time to find what’s just right, especially when you have high standards and refuse to compromise. That includes finding a factory.
We found our factory after researching dozens, visiting ten, and asking four to make samples for us. I ultimately chose a 60 person, family owned factory based in Guangzhou. They took the longest to deliver a sample, but that was because they reworked it three times before deciding it met their own high standards.
Our factory team is paid by hour, not by piece. This was important to me because it means that they are compensated for their quality and skill, rather than productivity and output. Meals are covered, and there is a daycare available for those with young children.
We're still working with the same factory today, and now have our three dedicated floors of production space.
I ordered 300 bags for our launch, the Linnea Tote in Latte and Black. I had spent months building excitement and, when launch day finally came… not a single order.
Then the pandemic happened. Offices shut down, work moved home, and I found myself with a living room full of work bags and absolutely no idea what to do.
So I tried everything. For two years I filmed content, packed every order, answered every email, and listened to what our customers wanted. I made mistakes, I spiraled, I fumbled, I laughed, but I kept going.
Five years later - we've built a small (mostly female!) team and work with incredibly talented creators and agencies. We have a dedicated factory, and have held multiple events all over the world where I've been lucky enough to meet some of you in person :)
And while I no longer haul your orders down to UPS personally each morning (shoutout to our fulfillment team Austin, Kayla, and Marcus for getting your orders out ASAP) many things still stay the same. We still only manufacture in small batches a few times a year. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey and our story.
xo, Jenny
Our bags are created with one core idea: the bags we carry every day should look and work beautifully. They should hold what we need without weighing us down, feel considered without feeling precious, and move easily between all the different parts of our lives.
We exclusively use ultrafiber, a premium non-woven fabric made using recycled microfiber with a top layer of water-based PU. It's plush, substantial, easy to maintain, and lighter than animal leather. The manufacturing process uses a fraction of the energy compared to traditional PU, and all our materials are OEKO-TEX certified and free from any PVC.
From the first sketch to the final stitch, we design around real routines. The laptop, the commute, the flight, the dinner after work. We consider everything from weight and proportion to organization and how a bag sits against the body. Function is built in quietly, never at the expense of form.
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