C E R I H O O V E R’S S I G NAT U R E U N F U S S Y H A N D BA G S A R E R E D E F I N I N G M O D E R N C H I C I N MU S I C C I T Y A N D A C R O S S T H E C O U N T RY. Several years ago, Ceri Hoover accidentally created a handbag. In February, her bags were carried by every 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model at the magazine’s Nashville launch event. This meteoric rise isn’t the result of hype, nor is it a fad. Ceri Hoover bags are the real deal: simply designed, impeccably crafted, and available at real-girl prices. Ceri (rhymes with Mary) is the real deal, too—not only immensely talented, but also utterly likeable and charmingly humble. The fact that this is her life still baffles the hell out of Ceri, but she’s trying to get used to it. A Navy kid who grew up in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Ceri settled in Seaside, Florida, where she met and married her husband, Craige. Soon after the arrival of their son, Luke, now six, they decided it was time to move to a bigger city. With Craige growing up outside of Nashville and Ceri being inexplicably drawn to the city since childhood, there was no question about where they would relocate. When she arrived in Nashville, Ceri was still figuring out how to satisfy her need to create. She had become obsessed with interior design blogs while pregnant, spending her days studying fabrics, learning to sew, and eventually even taking on small design jobs herself. One day, while making a leather pillow cover, she folded it
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over and had an epiphany. “I realized, ‘Oh, my gosh— this is a clutch,’” she says. “I cranked out five or six immediately, shared them with people, and here I am.” There may have been another step or two in there, but the company’s evolution was nearly that straightforward. After people began snapping up every design she posted online, stores clamored to carry her bags (about two hundred stores at last count). To give her more workspace—and shoppers a hands-on experience—Ceri opened her own studio two years ago in Nashville’s design mecca of Marathon Village. From here, she creates bags with clean lines that let the quality, texture, and color of the leather speak for themselves. “I want them to be like the bags you pull out of your grandmother’s closet and wear for the rest of your life, getting compliments every time,” she explains. Thanks to the exceptional leather she works with, her bags could indeed become heirloom pieces. Ceri is open to working with other materials at some point, but leather clearly lights her fire. She talks about the way it looks and smells as though she’s describing a lover and says she knows exactly how it moves on her sewing machine. Plus, she appreciates that leather is a lot like Nashville itself: classic with a little edge. Her minimalistic designs, sometimes absent even a fastener, are a reflection of Ceri’s own low-key aesthetic.