Creative Director
F
Sapna Shah
Khokho / New York
First generation Indian and a New Yorker for over a decade, I’m drawn to rich, diverse cultures and exploring. I thrive on having a varied life and building a sense of community.
I fell into fashion randomly while on a pre-med track at Tufts. I was always drawn to creating things and focused on illustration and painting throughout school. My draftsmanship skills opened doors early on and designing handbags was a way to bridge my passion for arts and engineering. For over a decade now, I’ve designed and developed handbags within the New York fashion industry including Coach and Calvin Klein, and designed from inception the first handbag collections for Rag & Bone and Eddie Borgo. Five years back I was looking to redirect my focus towards artisanal craft and smaller manufacturing and went to Swaziland as a Nest Professional Fellow. The result of my time there was co-founding Khokho, a artisan social enterprise creating luxury handbags fully made in Swaziland that combine traditional weaving techniques with leather. My expertise as a consultant is in the whole process of crafting bags, from design and branding to technical development and sourcing to production planning. My core passions are sustainable sourcing and craftsmanship and the preservation of traditional techniques. When I’m not designing, I work at a food coop, am captain of a bocce team, and rock climb!
