What to Include in a Designer Handbag Brief: Three Brief Formats Compared Line by Line

Three Brief Formats, Compared on Six Criteria

A brief is not one document but a choice between three, and the choice is really about where you want to spend your time: preparing it or correcting it later. The table below sets the three against each other on the six criteria that decide the outcome.

The pattern across the rows is consistent: time invested early is returned several times over in reduced sampling. A mood brief is genuinely useful for direction, but it is not a document to quote from, because every missing dimension becomes a question, and every question becomes a round.

Item 1: Geometry With Dimensions and a Tolerance

Every brief should state overall dimensions and how much variation the design accepts. Without a tolerance, a sample that is 1 mm out is either rejected or accepted arbitrarily, and both outcomes waste a round.

Panel dimensions

Stated in mm with a working tolerance of ±1.5 mm on cut panels

Handle drop

Measured from the apex to the body top; 100 mm is a common shoulder target

Strap width

12 mm for a light body, 18-20 mm where the bag is meant to carry weight

Base feet

8 mm diameter, four per body, set on a reinforced base panel

Opening width

Given at the frame or the zip line, not at the widest point of the body

The tolerance is the part designers omit, and it is the part that prevents arguments. Stating ±1.5 mm tells the bench how precise the cutting has to be and gives everyone the same standard to measure against.

Item 2: Material Direction, Named as a Lot

Name the material by type, thickness and finish rather than by colour alone. A note reading 'black leather' is not a specification; a note reading '1.2-1.4 mm full-grain calfskin, semi-aniline finish, black' is, and it can be reserved, costed and tested.

• Body thickness: 1.2-1.4 mm for structured work, 0.8-1.0 mm where the shape is soft.
• Lining: 0.8-1.0 mm, with interlining at 0.8 mm where the body needs to hold a fold.
• Finish and hand: semi-aniline, matte or polished, each behaving differently in cutting and edge work.
• The lot: reserve a named lot, because yield of 55-65% is a property of that lot and not of the drawing.
• Traceability: Leather Working Group audited tanneries evidence the origin increasingly asked for by boutiques.

Naming the lot early is what allows the material window of 15-20 working days to run in parallel with everything else. Leaving it open adds that window to the end of the calendar instead of overlapping it with the start.

Item 3: Hardware, Finish and the Stock or Bespoke Decision

State whether the closure and trim are stock or bespoke, and give the finish. This single line decides more of the calendar than any other item in the brief, because bespoke hardware carries its own tooling schedule.

• Finish: gold tones over brass at 0.15-0.3 µm, with 24 hours of salt spray proving for stock parts.
• Bespoke developments are proved at 48 hours and add 30-40 working days for tooling.
• Zips: #5 metal for a main opening, #3 for interior pockets, both named with tape colour.
• A stock plated trim set at USD 4.80 per bag keeps the trim line predictable across a capsule.
• Feet, magnets and D-rings should be listed individually, since each is a setting operation.

The reason this item belongs in the brief rather than in later correspondence is that it governs two things at once: the cost line and the calendar. A change from stock to bespoke after quotation re-prices and re-dates the capsule together.

Item 4: Construction Notes the Bench Actually Reads

Construction notes convert a drawing into a method. Four of them matter enough to be mandatory: stitch density, edge specification, reinforcement and seam sequence.

1. Stitch density: 8-9 per inch on visible seams, which is slower and finer than casual goods.
2. Edge specification: raw, turned, or painted in three coats with 8-10 minutes of flash time each.
3. Reinforcement: interlining at 0.8 mm under handles, bases and any point carrying load.
4. Seam sequence: which panel closes last, because a body cannot always be assembled front to back.
5. Thread: 0.45 mm braided polyester is a reasonable default for 8-9 per inch work.

Seam sequence is the note most often missing, and its absence is discovered at the bench rather than on paper, which is precisely the kind of discovery a brief is supposed to prevent.

Item 5: Colourways and Quantity Per Colourway

List every colourway and the quantity attached to each, because the minimum applies per style and colourway combination, not to the capsule as a whole.

• MOQ 500 pcs per style and colourway, so three colourways means three lots of 500.
• Each colourway carries its own material lot and its own reservation window.
• Compliance testing is booked per lot, so a third colourway can add a test line.
• Yield should be confirmed on each lot separately before panels are cut.

Stating this in the brief avoids the common mid-capsule surprise where a third colour is added after quotation and arrives with its own reservation window, its own test booking and its own share of the development cost.

Item 6: Destination Markets and Compliance

Name the markets the goods will be sold in, because compliance is booked per destination and per lot. The standards are determined by the market, not by the material.

• ISO 105 for colour fastness, ISO 3376 for tensile strength, ISO 11644 for finish adhesion.
• REACH Annex XVII governs restricted substances for the European market.
• California Prop 65 and CPSIA apply where goods are distributed in the United States.
• EU Regulation 1007/2011 governs how fibre compositions are described on labelling.

Adding a market later is not free. It means booking tests against the lot after the fact, and where a lot was never reserved for that market, it can mean re-testing on a substitute.

Item 7 to 9: Presentation, Calendar and the Immovable Date

The last three items are logistical and they are the ones that make the first six actionable: presentation requirements, the calendar you are working to, and the date that cannot move.

The trade term belongs here too. FOB Xiamen is the default, with CIF and DDP available, and fixing it at brief stage rather than at handover prevents the re-pricing that follows a late change.

The Nine Items on One Page

Assembled, the nine items fit on a single page, and a brief that fits on one page is a brief that gets read. Use it as a checklist before sending anything.

A brief covering all nine can be quoted in 1-2 days. One covering three of them can be acknowledged in the same time and quoted three weeks later, which is the real difference between the formats.

What Happens After the Brief Arrives

A complete brief moves straight into the material window and the pattern work, which can then run in parallel. Incomplete briefs do the same work but in series, because each unknown has to be resolved before the next step can start.

1. Material shortlist and reservation against a named lot, typically 15-20 working days.
2. Pattern and two toiles in calico to settle proportion, handle drop and closure placement.
3. Sampling at 6-10 working days, or 12-15 where the construction is complex.
4. Approval and the specification freeze, then bulk at 35-50 days from intake.
5. Inspection at AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1, then packing and documents over 3-5 days.

Everything above runs through our validated partner factory Quanzhou Yingming Bags, an SGS-validated site with 7 production lines and about 200,000 pcs per month of capacity, holding export experience since 2014. Third-party inspection can be arranged alongside the internal audit.

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