Melissa Liebling-Goldberg

Athena Calderone is the quintessential New York City multi-hyphenate. In addition to founding her wildly popular website EyeSwoon, she is a chef, a mom, an interior designer and a cookbook author (not to mention a fashion force in her own right!). We invited Athena to design a bag unique to her life, and she created a super-chic style that pulls from her love of mixing the unexpected in her cooking. With black haircalf sides, white python body and elderberry suede lining, the Universal Tote is sleek, sexy and utterly versatile — just like Athena herself. Watch her take on what it means to be a New Yorker and have luxury made right here in NYC in the video above, and click through to create the Universal Tote for yourself.