PURSE POP UP LIVE: A Flash Sale Fever Dream

Once upon a subway delay, back when fashion still flirted with rebellion and rent was only kind of a scam, we started stitching bags in a Lower East Side apartment. That was CRIS & COCO. This? This is its neon-lit, ironic grandchild: PURSE POP UP LIVE—a permanent sample sale turned fashion remix machine.

Chapter 1: From RUFF RUFF to Riff-Raff

Our first label? RUFF RUFF. Named after a partner, a pup, and a pattern of doubling words like DURAN DURAN. Born post-9/11 on a folding table in SoHo, we sold oversized bags to oversized dreams. We didn’t call it branding—it was surviving, with a needle and thread.

Those were the BAB days. Big Ass Bags. Before they were trending, before they were acronymed. Back when our workshop was half-Ecuador, half-East Village, and entirely illegal.

Chapter 2: Brooklyn Dreams, Garment District Nightmares

Next stop: Greenpoint. Cue specialty machines, broken industrial dreams, and New York-made fantasies. But the city’s fashion infrastructure was already an Instagram filter: sepia-toned and mostly fiction. We learned that to make a bag, you need more than vision. You need piping. And patience. And someone who actually answers their phone in the Garment District.

Chapter 3: Guangzhou Calling

By 2007, we pivoted to China. Not because we sold out—but because New York tapped out. Guangzhou was a revelation. Malls the size of city blocks. Factories that laughed at our tiny orders but cried real tears for Chanel counterfeits. They made rplcs so perfect even Karl might’ve shrugged.

We hovered in that world—between legit and legend, between contracts and collapse. Our labels kept shifting. Our passion didn’t.

Chapter 4: YSLES and the Trademark Games

We launched YSLES—old French for “islands,” and aspirational enough to land us in five countries. But before we could scream comeback, a factory registered our brand behind our backs. We rebranded to YSLE (sleeker, cheekier), only for the trademark office to come knocking with a dossier that screamed “don’t mess with Saint Laurent.”

So we didn’t.

Chapter 5: Enter the Pop-Up

CRIS & COCO became the postscript. Then the remix. Then the comeback tour. And now: PURSE POP UP LIVE.
A sample sale without the expiration date.
A fashion drop without the gatekeepers.
A store that asks: What if Warhol ran a handbag label?

Here, we sell style with a wink and a side-eye. No brand worship. No corporate ladder. Just drop-dead gorgeous bags that tell better stories than their price tags.

Because style should feel like a pop song.
Short. Loud. Rebellious.
And always on repeat.