Riveting design in handbags

When Wanaka designer Kaz Von Heraud Parker told her aviation engineer husband Greg she wanted a new handbag, he made it with the aluminium and aircraft rivets in his workshop at Wanaka Airport.

Fast forward several months and the couple's Von Avi bag range is to be launched at the Air New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland on Monday.

The couple are now eagerly anticipating the reaction from international buyers and the public and are hoping for manufacturing orders.

Mr Von Heraud Parker worked for Sir Tim Wallis' Alpine Fighter Collection for 14 years until November last year and attests the bags should not fall apart, although these rivets have not been tested by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Mr Von Heraud Parker said construction was straightforward and he used the same technique as building the wing of an aircraft.

"It's all pattern-making, bending, folding and riveting," he said.

The artistic couple are well-known in Wanaka for their passion for design, wearable arts and film-making.

They have enjoyed designing the handbags, not least because of the time spent with girlfriends trialling the prototypes.

The bags have plush leather and fabric lining and interior lights so the owner can delve into dark corners.

That lighting concept continues a manufacturing process they started when they produced their own LED-lit wedding costumes earlier this year.

"No-one has seen them yet apart from girlfriends, with whom we've had to swap services in lieu of handbags," Ms Von Heraud Parker said.

The couple set up MayE Machine workshop in the Alpine Fighter Collection hangar in November after Mr Von Heraud Parker's employment with the winding-down company ended.

They worked together throughout the winter to design and construct the bags and accessories, including cast bronze aircraft attachments.

They have also been designing props for the film industry.

"It has been great. We bounce everything off each other: the dimensions, the proportions, construction.

"Greg will ring me and say, `What do you think', and I will come out and have a look. We both really love good design. It has been sheer determination, like a snowball ploughing on through a whiteout," Ms Von Heraud Parker said.

The smallest handbag is called "Barfly" but the couple's son, Louis (4), has discovered it is the perfect size for a chocolate chip biscuit and a sandwich, so he uses it as a lunch box.

The medium-sized bag is called the "Girl About Town".

The large "BBB" (Brilliant Business Bella or Brilliant Boozing Bella) can carry A4-sized business documents or three bottles of wine.

The bags will be exhibited on a stand at the fashion week venue, the Westin Auckland Lighter Quay, throughout the event.

The couple's own film of their Air New Zealand Fashion Week Innovation Award entry, which also includes a futuristic metallic garment, is available on the event's website.

It features their daughter, Madi Chamberlain (16), and her friend, Mattias Inwood (16).