Luxury Briefing: The artification of luxury fashion 

It’s evident in the locations of brands’ marketing activations, the inspirations behind designers’ seasonal collections and the guest curators of art authorities’ exhibits. For fashion brands, depending on the play, aligning with the art world works to appeal to more interests of affluent consumers. Of course, it also makes it more feasible to position their products as investment pieces.

Launched last week, with three clutch handbag styles priced $5,800-$7,800, Eittem was intentionally designed to straddle the line between the two industries. Its pieces can just as easily be worn about town or placed on a coffee table as decorative objects. 

“They’re functional sculptures,” Erin Saluti, the brand’s founder and creative director, told Glossy.

Erin Saluti comes from an art and design background — she studied the fields at the Victoria and Albert Museum before going on to interior design school and working as an art curator. Her husband and co-founder, Joe Saluti, has long worked with wood as a hobby, steadily accumulating related tools and machinery in the couple’s home in Westchester County, New York. Eventually, by request, Joe made Erin a walnut wood clutch for her birthday, which led to the birth of Eittem —  a business idea that more rapidly took shape during the height of the pandemic.

Erin’s familiarity with fashion is more as a fan or consumer, she said. She gravitates toward sculptural, quality and tailored pieces by the likes of Khaite, Loro Piana and The Row.

Out of the gate, Eittem sells styles in subtle novelty shapes, appropriately dubbed Owl, Bird and Moon. Each is made from walnut and available in three finishes, including exposed wood and different lacquer-look paints. The plan is to release a new bag shape every year. 

The concept of using a novelty bag as a home accessory was popularized by Judith Leiber, who launched her crystal clutch brand in the 1960s — the company was acquired by Authentic Brands Group in 2013. And, as evident during New York Fashion Week spring 2025, novelty handbags are having a moment. 

In March, the Salutis and their growing Eittem staff — now made up of nine people, including a five-person production team — relocated their operations to a Chelsea, NYC studio. Intentionally from a variety of backgrounds, hires include graduates from Pratt, Parsons and the Stamps School of Art and Design, as well as woodworkers, metalsmiths and architecture experts. In addition, a communications manager crafts copy for the brand’s social media accounts and Journal blog. 

Eittem’s production, done in-house, leverages a variety of largely American-made machinery native to industries outside of fashion and art. It includes dental tools and a robo-drill used in aerospace to carve metal. A paint finishing process used on guitars is done by hand and creates the bags’ glossy finish. And the included hardware is custom-designed and specific to each bag. The bags’ detachable chain strap is made from sterling silver coated with rhodium, and German Weinheimer leather, which can be wet-molded, is featured on their interior. Dust bags made in Italy are among the packaging components. Like artwork, each handbag is numbered and comes with a card of authenticity signed by its makers. An Eittem bag currently takes two weeks to produce. 

To further depict the Eittem lifestyle, the brand’s website features a Spotify playlist. And soon, Eittem plans to enlist “cultural influencers” with brand-complementing style to get more eyes on its pieces. 

Eitttem’s target customer is “a modern collector,” Erin said.

“This is someone who attends art fairs; has their own point of view, in terms of their personal style; and is not reliant on logos — we want the bags’  shapes themselves to become representative of our brand,” she said. “[This consumer] is looking for something innovative and art-adjacent. … And we hope they’ll consider [our bags] heritage pieces and pass them down to the next generation.”

Eittem currently sells direct-to-consumer online and through in-studio appointments. The founders are exploring “partnerships and branding opportunities” with art fairs including TEFAF and Frieze and plan to leverage “very select” retail partners in the future, Erin said. 

Just as the luxury fashion market has been rocky, as of late, the art world has also been challenged. According to a 2024 report by UBS and Art Basel, in 2023, the $65 billion art market was up just 1% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Eittem has hired the brand and creative agency General Idea, which has worked with Louis Vuitton and Lanvin. In 2023, while speaking with Glossy, General Idea founder Ian Schatzberg pointed out the abundance of brand “oxygen” going into producing high-priced objects as “the global affluent are becoming more affluent.” He also noted the culture’s obsession with “finding objects of extreme expense and craft.” 

“People who are purchasing a bag at this price point are going to continue to shop through tough [economic] landscapes,” Erin said. “I am encouraged that the more craft-based, slow luxury brands, like Hermès, continue to do well.”

Still, she noted, “We did not work toward a price point; we worked backward from finding the best materials across the board.”

The company expects to see little by way of sales margins in year one, until it scales, Erin said. But, by year three, it plans to be profitable. Its revenue will be dependent on the bag quantity produced, which has yet to be determined.

Keeping bag quantities low is a strategy. The first nine SKUs will be retired by the end of the year, and a second collection will be released in February. “We’re never going to be selling thousands of bags,” Erin said. “Maybe by year three, we’ll be selling hundreds. But we want to protect them.” Eittem plans to introduce custom bag colors by mid-2025, and offering custom bag shapes is a likely step down the road. 

As for other future steps, Eittem will extend its shipping beyond the U.S. to Europe and the U.K. in early 2025. And it will likely, eventually, branch out to other fashion accessories made with walnut.

The Prada-art connection

Of course, a highlight of the week was the release of Prada Group’s third-quarter earnings, on Wednesday, which showed an 18% annual revenue increase across brands. The Prada brand saw a comparatively small 2% boost, while Miu Miu’s sales rose 105% — making both brands outliers in luxury’s widely publicized slump. 

A company statement pointed to the “strong and distinct identities” of the brands, noting Prada’s “polyhedric brand equity” achieved through participation in cultural events like the 37th America’s Cup. Meanwhile, Miu Miu’s “sharp positioning” was credited to its “cross-pollination of fashion, cinema and other arts.” Its “Miu Miu Tales & Tellers” marketing activation at Art Basel Paris “enhanced the brand’s tension to play across the spectrum of different artistic disciplines,” the company stated.

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