Home Michael Kors MCM Gryson / Olivia Harris Botkier ATOY Process Surface Design About

Alex
Toy

Creative and strategic design leader.

Extensive background in accessories design and development, creating trend-right shapes across handbags and accessories that consistently delivered high sell-throughs for global luxury and contemporary fashion brands.

Adept at leading high-performing teams and optimizing design processes within global luxury and contemporary fashion brands.

Known for driving revenue growth through commercially successful designs, cross-functional collaboration, and a forward-thinking approach to trend forecasting and novelty innovation.

Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Handbag Design
Gryson / Olivia Harris
Gryson / Olivia Harris
Gryson
Olivia Harris
MCM
MCM
MCM
Luxury Design
Botkier
Botkier
Botkier
Contemporary Design
ATOY
ATOY
ATOY
Personal Label
Senior Design Director  ·  Michael Kors
2015 – 2025

Designed commercially successful styles that became bestsellers across the accessories line, while developing novelty and fashion-forward shapes to create seasonal excitement and drive newness for the customer.

Design Consultant  ·  MCM
2008 – 2014

Developed the MCM New York Collection in collaboration with Joy Gryson studio. Premium price point product designed and manufactured in Italy, with hands-on prototype development at Italian ateliers. The collection focused on elevated leather goods positioned at luxury price points for the North American market.

Design Director  ·  Gryson / Olivia Harris
2008 – 2014

Designed across the Joy Gryson studio's portfolio of in-house labels including Gryson, IIIBeca, and Olivia Harris, spanning contemporary to bridge price points.

Gryson
Olivia Harris
Designer  ·  Botkier
2006 – 2008

Designed leather goods for Botkier New York, a contemporary accessories brand known for distinctive hardware and a downtown New York aesthetic. Work included original design development from concept through sketch and final specification.

Founder  ·  Independent Label

A.Toy is an independent accessories label created to express a design point of view that felt absent from the market. Every element, from material selection to hardware development, reflects a singular creative vision built outside the constraints of a corporate design calendar, and informed by years of working at the highest level of the accessories industry.

Michael Kors  ·  Logo Innovation & Novelty Development

Developed signature surface treatments, logo innovations, and print executions for Michael Kors across multiple seasons. Work spans pattern origination, colorway development, and the translation of brand codes into commercially viable novelty product, from deboss and jacquard to degrade and distortion.

These franchises travel across categories and channels, informing everything from hero handbag styles to ready-to-wear, and represent one of the core commercial drivers of each seasonal collection.

Creative and strategic design leader.

Fifteen years in accessories design, across contemporary, bridge, and luxury. The work has spanned handbags, small leather goods, and travel at Michael Kors, Gryson, Botkier, and MCM, each brand requiring a distinct creative language and a different kind of rigor.

At the core, the approach has always been the same: find the shape that earns its place, build the team that can execute it, and hold a standard that doesn't slip when the calendar gets tight. Design leadership is as much about systems and culture as it is about product.

Currently Art Director at Sharper Image, building their soft goods category from the ground up.

Alex Toy Sketches Work
Leadership Approach
01
Brand-Led Product Strategy

Design decisions grounded in brand identity, consumer insight, and commercial goals. Creative vision balanced with margin, cost, and market realities to deliver products that perform.

02
Systems & Process Clarity

Systems built for product creation and innovation. From development calendars to design standards and team workflows, helping teams move faster while maintaining quality and consistency.

03
Collaborative Leadership

Great product comes from aligned teams. Clear communication, mentorship, and cross-functional partnership build the trust and momentum that bring the best work forward.

A look at the full design arc, from seasonal direction through material development, original sketches, surface design, and final product. Every collection begins with a point of view and ends with something a customer wants to carry.


01
Trend Direction

Each season opens with a directional edit, pulling from runway, culture, art, and street. The trend board sets the emotional and commercial tone before a single sketch is drawn, aligning the team on color palette, material mood, and the story we want to tell.


02
Material Development

Material selection is where trend becomes tangible. Working directly with suppliers in Italy, China, and Korea, each season's palette of leathers, textiles, and exotics is curated to support the collection's direction, price architecture, and commercial requirements across channels.


03
Design

With direction and materials established, design development moves from concept to construction. Ideation explores proportion, silhouette, and functional details before narrowing to the styles that best serve the collection. Technical sketches then define hardware placement, strap configuration, and base construction, giving the factory everything needed to build the first prototype.


04
Surface Design

Logo innovation and surface treatment development give each collection its signature novelty story. Working across deboss, jacquard, print, and distortion techniques, these franchises create the customer excitement that drives sell-through, and travel across categories from bags to footwear and ready-to-wear.


05
Final Product

From concept to campaign. The final product reflects every decision made upstream, from the seasonal color story to the material call to the surface treatment, brought together in styles designed to perform commercially and create desire.