HONG KONG – Since its launch just nine years ago in Hong Kong as a limited line of clutches and minaudieres, Kotur has grown into a label that is stocked at Harvey Nichols, Saks and J.Crew and constantly making fashion headlines (Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, Anne Hathaway and Adele have toted these beauties on the red carpet.)

The woman behind this is Hong Kong-based American designer Fiona Kotur. Artinfo chats to the loving mother of four about the story of Kotur, where she gets her inspiration, and what to expect for her Fall/Winter collection.

Out of all the accessories, why clutches?

Well, there’s an old-fashioned glamor to them, but they also allow you to experiment with all sorts of materials. Plus, you can make a great statement just with one little piece, there’s something very happy about them.

You create dozens of clutches every season and they are all unique in their own way. What do you turn to for inspiration?

I love to look back. There’s a vintage quality to what we do that means mining the past for inspiration is part of our daily job – and something I enjoy so much. Also, I turn a lot to travel, because a lot of our ideas come from the materials. We use indigenous fabrics from Indonesia and the Philippines for example that have spawned their own mini collections.

Of course, friends of Kotur are also invaluable. A lot of my bags are named after them, and I design certain pieces with certain women in mind.

Have you always wanted to start your own accessory brand or was Kotur a pure coincidence?

An old family friend from Hong Kong had told me about a warehouse in Kowloon that stocked bolts of vintage brocade fabric. I sought it out and found a man in his 90′s who had spent decades running a silk mill that had supplied fabric to couture houses of Europe. He had a huge archive of extraordinary things, pieces that no one anywhere in the world can seem to fathom. Unfortunately, as the silk manufacturing industry moved to Italy, his business suffered. So, by the time I found him, he had resorted to just selling off the remnants of his extraordinary collection. I started buying bits and pieces off him, a bolt here, another there, because the fabrics were simply too beautiful to resist.

After a while, I looked into making my first clutches, and from then on started to buy more. And then, one day, he told me that he would be locking the warehouse and moving to America for good. He had no plans for the remainder of his stock – he was simply going to leave it there. I made a snap decision to buy up whatever he had left, had it all delivered to the spare room of my apartment, and the rest is handbag history!

Then Kotur was officially founded in 2004, what was your immediate goal for the brand?

Right from the get go, I wanted to create a brand with a strong DNA that was focused on products I personally loved and had the potential to grow into a valid international concern.

That DNA would be?

Little bags with big personalities – that’s what we do here at Kotur.

Do you still remember your first-ever design?

The first Kotur bag we ever did was a zip around wallet clutch, gold leather lined, with a crystal bauble zipper pull. It came in vintage brocade from that very first warehouse. We did a whole assortment of different colours, just a few of each, because that’s all the fabric would allow, and they were great.

When did you first find yourself interested in designing clutches?

Initially, given the vintage brocade fabrics I was using, the clutches just made sense. On top of that, clutches and minaudières are things I’ve been collecting my whole life. My fondness for them has got nothing to do with trend, it’s more something about the artistic quality they have. I love just seeing them sitting on a table.

Just as a teaser, what are we going to see in the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection?

For Autumn Winter you’re going to see a lot of Deco-inspired pieces. We’ve done some extremely luxurious mother of pearl inlaid minaudieres inspired but the New York skyline that are insanely glamorous and kind of quirky at the same time. I cannot wait to wear them.