Maria Agostini
Staff Writer
Name: Florencia Tagle, Matias Sierra – Coyote Bags
Profession: Fashion Designers
Nationality: Chilean
Location: Santiago de Chile
Contacts: http://coyotebags.cl/index.html, http://www.facebook.com/coyotebags, https://twitter.com/#!/coyotebags,
Age: 26 & 25
When I first stepped into their studio, I stopped and thought I was living a dream. Coming in from the entrance of the building, there is a small courtyard with a communal kitchen and, all around it, old studios of young designers. Walking into the Coyote Bags one, I see a little wooden table, with coffee and cookies, and Matias and Florencia sitting next to each other and surrounded by fabrics, an old stove, scissors, bags, bits of leather…and plenty of love for what they are doing!
Florencia Tagle and Matias Sierra, founders of Coyote
1. Tell us about what you do…
We created a brand called “Coyote Bags” that does backpacks, rucksacks and handbags. They are all hand made, we do everything by ourselves: we design the bags, go around, choose the fabrics and different types of leather and sew all together. We even make the paper bags to sell them!
2. How did you end up doing it?
Florencia: I went on a three months trip around Europe last summer, and wanted to buy a rucksack for Matias, because every time we looked for one here in Chile, we just thought they were incredibly ugly. Finally, I found a really nice old one in a shop in Amsterdam.
Once back in Santiago, every time Matias was carrying the bag, he received so many compliments that we ended up thinking: why can’t we make them? It can’t be too hard! So, we started researching on how to hand craft them, and we made the first 10 bags last December, a few weeks before Christmas. After a few days, we had 30 orders for Christmas day; after three months, we were exporting our bags to shops in Europe; and now, six months later, we are off to Bread & Butter (http://www.breadandbutter.com/) in Berlin, one of the largest fairs of up and coming design. It all came incredibly quickly, and we would have never expected it!
3. Where are you from originally & what has taken you where you live now?
We are both from Santiago, and we have lived here all our lives: grew up here, studied here, and started working here too.
4. Where else would you ever live? Why?
We would definitely like to live in Europe for a while, at least for a year. We are off to Berlin for Bread and Butter in a few days, and we would love to stay there for a while, but also go to Hamburg and Copenhagen, which seem very lively for businesses like ours.
5. What is missing in your city’s art scene?
What is at the same time good and bad about Santiago is that the art scene is very small, despite the city being very big (6 million people). The good side is that it is quite easy to be successful and to be known; our business is the perfect example: it would be quite hard to achieve this much in 6 months elsewhere. The art scene concentrates around the Barrio Italia scene, where everyone knows each other, which really helps when it comes to promoting art and helping each other out. At the same time, however, the circle is so small that it gets quite repetitive and boring pretty soon; also, while it is easy to become quite popular, it is extremely difficult for independent designers to reach a wider scale of public, as there aren’t many shops that sell young and independent designers’ clothes or bags.
6. What has contributed the most towards what you have achieved?
Matias: When we decided to start off with Coyote Bags, I was playing in a band, and Florencia was working in cinema production, and we decided to give it a shot, as we were not losing much by leaving our previous jobs. As we started our little business, we realised we just loved every tiny bit of it. We had never ever worked that hard before, but, this time, we just love doing it, spending entire days in our little studio is just great! Certainly we’ve been lucky, but we always really cared about doing well what we were doing: our passion and total commitment to it was what paid off the most.
7. At the age of 20, what did you think you were going to do “in life” – where did you see yourself in the future? Has your dream come true already?
M: I had no idea of what I wanted to do. Here in Chile, when you finish school, you have to sit an entry exam to enrol in university, and the exam is different for each course, so I had to come to a decision. In the end, I picked graphic design, but it was essentially a way to stay in the art circle and dedicate most of my time to the band I was playing in. All my hopes for the future were, in fact, linked to my band, and so I wasn’t expecting for my dream to come true by making backpacks – 5 years ago I would have just thought it was such a random thing!
8. What projects are you currently working on?
We are in the process of designing new bags to expand our collection, and possibly do wallets and smaller bags too. Going to Bread & Butter will also give us the chance to start selling more backpacks in Europe and other countries; we hope that plenty of doors will open. The other day we were even thinking about making shoes…
9. If you could meet any artist – living or dead – who would it be?
F: I would say Egon Schiele – when I went to Europe last summer, I travelled all the way to his hometown, which is a tiny village in Austria to see where he came from. His paintings have something ugly and fascinating at the same time. Meeting him would be a strange but extremely interesting experience.
10. And finally, if you could do anything at any time anywhere in the world, what would you do?
F: I would be living in France – either with Madame Bovary or with students during 1968.
The traveller corner – Matias and Florencia’s tips if you were in Santiago…
Theatre – Guillermo Calderon: “Neva”, “Diciembre”,
Teatro de la Memoria (http://www.teatrolamemoria.cl/)
Band – Fernando Milagro, Pedropiedra, Astro, Javiera Mena, BYM records
Gig venue – Bar Loreto (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bar-Loreto/197757850264203)
Area of the city – Barrio Italia (http://www.mibarrioitalia.cl/)
Shop – Love it (http://www.facebook.com/lovit.cl)
Café – Bovary (http://www.cafebovary.cl/index.php)
Thai restaurant at Bio-Bio flea market (http://www.facebook.com/persabiobio)
