THE WORLD DOESN'T NEED ANOTHER HANDBAG
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What Problem Does a Handbag Solve?
There’s a piece of business advice you hear constantly:
Find a problem and solve it.
And for years, that advice made me question my own business.
What problem am I actually solving with a handbag?
People already have handbags. There are thousands of brands making them. And if we’re being practical, the basic problem of needing something to carry your belongings was solved a very long time ago.
So why does Maya Winston need to exist?
I think I finally understand the answer.
Not every problem is functional.
Fashion, music, art, restaurants, travel and luxury solve something different. They influence how we feel. They give us ways to express ourselves. They create connection. They give us things to identify with and sometimes even a sense of belonging.
And that made me realize I had been asking myself the wrong question.
The question isn’t:
What problem does a Maya Winston handbag solve?
The better question is:
What was missing that made me feel Maya Winston needed to exist?
I started Maya Winston because I love beautiful things. I love design. I love craftsmanship. I love the details that can turn an everyday object into something that feels special.
But my understanding of beauty and luxury didn’t develop in a vacuum.
I’m Jamaican. I grew up in New York City. My perspective has been shaped by Caribbean culture, Black culture, New York, travel, music, food, fashion and all the different people and places I’ve experienced along the way.
Those things influence what I find beautiful.
They influence what I find interesting.
Naturally, they influence what I create.
And somewhere along the way, I started noticing a disconnect.
So much of what we’re taught to recognize as luxury comes with a world already built around it.
There are established references for what sophistication looks like. Where you should travel. What restaurants matter. What art matters. What neighborhoods matter. What experiences are aspirational.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.
I enjoy many of them myself.
But I also know luxury can have more than one point of view.
There are people with incredible taste, curiosity and cultural awareness whose lives don’t always resemble the worlds traditionally presented to them by luxury brands.
They travel. They care about design. They discover restaurants. They go to galleries. They go to Carnival. They care about wellness. They know music. They know fashion. They know the places everyone else will eventually discover.
Their references are global.
Their cultures are layered.
Their definition of a beautiful life is their own.
And I started asking myself:
Why should experiencing luxury require stepping into someone else’s world?
That’s when the problem became clearer to me.
Maybe I’m not solving the need for another handbag.
Maybe I’m helping close the distance between luxury and cultural recognition.
I’m not interested in telling people that they belong in luxury.
I’m interested in creating luxury that can exist in the worlds they already belong to.
That realization has changed the way I think about Maya Winston.
It’s why my vision for the brand has grown beyond simply showing handbags.
The restaurants matter.
The travel matters.
The art matters.
The music matters.
The wellness matters.
The neighborhoods matter.
The people matter.
The cultural references that make you smile because you get it matter.
Those things aren’t distractions from the product.
They’re the world the product lives in.
And importantly, that world isn’t reserved for one gender, one type of person or one narrowly defined customer.
Maya Winston handbags are for anyone who connects with them.
The perspective behind the brand comes from my experiences and the cultures that shaped me. But you don’t have to share my exact story to see yourself in what I create.
That’s what I find exciting about culture. Something can come from somewhere specific and still speak to people everywhere.
So maybe I’ve been answering the question incorrectly all these years.
The world doesn’t necessarily need another handbag.