View Handbag Butler Products

They say necessity is the mother of invention – and Ana Slavka’s story is living proof.

With 20 years of experience as an international model and make-up artist, Ana, who grew up in Germany before spending 10 years living in New Zealand, has always maintained a strong connection with the fashion industry.

After moving to Australia three years ago to be with her husband Stephan, Ana was ready to apply her skills to a new challenge. Having always loved the idea of launching her own business, Ana toyed with a few concepts while studying interior design in Sydney. Despite researching and considering a number of business ideas, she hadn’t come up with that one idea that really “clicked”.

Then, while lunching with a girlfriend visiting from France, the perfect business idea presented itself. “We had just been seated at a cafe, my ever-stylish girlfriend whipped out an old-fashioned handbag hanger and hung her designer bag from the table,” says Ana. “I had always loathed the idea of putting my own favourite handbag on the ground when eating out, so there I was sitting awkwardly with my giant handbag sitting on my lap! I knew there and then I had to find a handbag hanger of my own.”
But when it took Ana ten days to track one down in the form of an over-priced, impractical model in a dusty, forgotten corner of a gift store 30km from her Sydney home, Ana knew she was onto something.

Tapping into husband Stephan’s extensive experience in the retail and giftware industries, Ana worked tirelessly to formulate a high-quality, user-friendly product, and launched her fledgling label, Handbag Butler, nine months later in October 2008.

View Handbag Butler Products