The Collaboration

What do you get when you mix leather and a beautiful original painting and make it a bag? Well... I mean you get a bag, but you also get a stunning, totally unique work of art. We are thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with the incomparable Sara Elliott, whose gorgeous mixed media paintings are just to die for. We take our most popular bag styles and replace a panel of leather with a panel from a Sara Elliott painting. And because this is our website, that means you get to choose which painting and which leather. 

How did this all come about, you ask (I assume)? Months ago, Sara had a couple of friends come in who wondered if we could combine her artwork and our leather, and the answer was (eventually) ommmm, YES. They don't call us geniuses for nothing (no one calls us that). Sara first came in with Friend Number One - we'll call her Mary because that's her name - around late summer 2019 to propose the idea. I admit that at first I was all you want me to do what? Huh? Hoo? Come again? Honestly I was just trying to think through how it would work and if it would work while also being polite because we had never met before, come to find out she also lives in Hinesburg and her kids are in school with my kids and she just moved here but actually used to live here but moved away and is now back and has been friends with Mary forever, which is funny because I actually knew Mary in middle school, true story and so forth. 

Anyway, we had a simply lovely conversation, lovely. In the following weeks I thought about it periodically, but because there wasn't a ton of communication and no official order (Mary is busy walking dogs. Lots and lots and an absolute sea of dogs), it didn't really move forward until one (later) fine day. Enter Kate (the "e" is silent). Kate knew exactly what she wanted and was r.e.a.d.y. I suppose that mentally pushed both Sara and me to make something happen. Three canvases, a bit of Italian leather, and about eighteen puddles of drool later, we had two stunning bags (plus one clutch, but I'm not counting) and three fires in three bellies. (Fire and belly number three belong to Elisabeth, who was by now fully on board with the magic that was happening.)

We lovelovelove working with Sara and putting these two timeless materials together. Combining two colors of leather together is fun, but matching leather and beautiful, colorful, painterly artwork is a whole new situation. In fact I think I just decided to give the Palace/Princess Shop another name: The Situation Room. So come visit us and put together your very own M&PB + SEA bag and we can all be very dramatic about it. "Hi welcome to Ma & Pembum! Would you like to look around, or are you here for... *look left and look right* The Situation Room?" Dun dun DUNNNNNNN