It's early on a Saturday night, and the festivities are just beginning. Throngs of people collect slowly, first along the bar, then filling the room. Smiles are shared over the pouring of drinks, and eyes meet in glances through the crowd. The night is young, and no one knows exactly where it will lead.
It is this sense of excited anticipation that senior Heather Tamarkin has tried to capture. Combining her interests in art, fashion and business, Tamarkin has started her own handbag line, creating evening purses adorned with hand-painted images of college life - such as the party described above.
"I wasn't happy with the bags that were out there," Tamarkin said. "A lot of it was me wanting to create my own bag."
But making a personal bag for herself was only the first step for Tamarkin. Over the summer, she made 30 more bags. She sewed the bags out of denim and then individually painted each with one of three scenes: an evening party, a fireworks display or a sunset viewed from the library roof.
The bags will be on sale for $30 each in the campus center this Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will serve as the first official sale of Tamarkin's line, which she has dubbed Soiree Handbags.
"This will be our first foray into the business," said senior Jenna Dreher, Tamarkin's friend and official public relations consultant.
Tamarkin and Dreher plan on using Friday's sale as a test-run for their future operation. "I need to gauge the customer reaction, just to get a feel for what people think," Tamarkin said. "If I get a good response, I can tailor it to what people like and come up with the best product."
The initial inspiration for the handbags' design came to Tamarkin during an art history course she took in Talloires two years ago.
"I was very inspired by the way Renoir portrayed the lighting in the painting 'Bal du Moulin de la Galette,' which features a large group of people at a party," she said. "Later that summer, I decided to make a modern-day version based off parties that my suite had in Latin Way during my sophomore year."
Tamarkin then painted this image onto a bag she sewed using the denim of old jeans. "Denim was the perfect fabric because it absorbs the dark colors and makes the lighter ones really vivid," she said.
The other two designs also reflect an emphasis on light and color.
"My favorite one is the library rooftop scene - it's something I can really relate to," said senior Nila Mitra, a friend of Tamarkin's and a fan of the collection. "She based the three scenes on the bags around actual places at Tufts, so that is what makes them so meaningful to Tufts students."
Tamarkin said that the library rooftop image was inspired by the "homesickness" she felt for Tufts over the summer. Yet all of the images are consistent with a collegiate theme of youth and excitement.
"The images represent an idealized view of nightlife," Tamarkin said. "I associate them with the feeling of anticipation while you're getting ready to go out and the sense that tonight anything can happen."
If the initial sale is successful, the next step for Soiree Handbags will be to develop manufactured versions. "I can only make so many of these hand-painted," Tamarkin said.
In order to take production to the next level, Tamarkin is planning to attend a workshop on product manufacturing over winter break in New York City. The workshop will describe the specific process of how one "goes about producing something," Tamarkin said.
Developing Soiree Handbags is part of Tamarkin's plan to eventually professionally run a personal business. "I like the idea of having my own business because I think it's so fulfilling to create something from scratch and have people respond to it and buy it," Tamarkin said.
Tamarkin has been interested in fashion since sophomore year of high school. As a result of her fashion flair, she took two classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology before she began her Tufts career.
A psychology major with a minor in drama, Tamarkin is involved in costume design and has worked on three productions at Tufts.
Tamarkin further pursued her interest in fashion with an internship at DKNY over the summer. There she was involved with global licensing, which she found very interesting.
"It's exactly what I want to do - it combines fashion and business," Tamarkin said.
