Building an empire, one handbag at a time

SHERBURNE – When Wendy Gillette left her position at a local school two years ago, she thought she would be going into the health and wellness field, but what followed was a long journey she feels led her to her life’s destiny of designing high-end handbags.

After struggling to make ends meet by doing random jobs, including healthcare, baby-sitting and house cleaning, Wendy said she had a vision of a handbag. “It was out of the blue and irrelevant to anything to do with where I thought I was heading,” Wendy said. She had never sewn before, but in order to pursue her vision, she got materials and a pattern and called her mother, who immediately came and tried to teach Wendy the basics of sewing.

“We produced some, and people liked them,” Wendy said.