Kane is the director of design operations for Couture Planet in Lynn.
The company is the brainchild of Connie Carman, who is manager of the hotel store at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.
“Fairmont pioneered the green movement in the hotel industry,’’ Carman said. “I joined the green team at the hotel, and saw all the newspapers pile up.’’
Carman initially came up with an idea for a recycling bin for hotel rooms, and developed a prototype.
While her idea was not adopted by the Fairmont, it evolved into a vision to make bags - pocketbooks, wallets, totes - from recycled newspapers, with their original content incorporated in the design. Couture Planet was born.
“I really started it as a hobby, and the response was so sensational and overwhelming that I just had to continue it,’’ Carman said. “I brought on partners, and every year since I’ve been in business we’ve either doubled or triples our sales.
“It’s all word of mouth. We don’t have a sales team out there. [It’s just] people seeing it in my shop at the hotel and then taking it back to their communities,’’ she said. “So it’s really amazing the way things have worked.’’
Carman and Kane, both natives of Buffalo who live in Swampscott, met through their children’s athletic events.
What started with Carman working odd hours in the attic of her home has expanded to Couture Planet’s office and manufacturing space at the Lydia Pinkham Building in downtown Lynn. Carman still works for the Fairmont, while squeezing in hours for Couture Planet.
The company has made commitments to offering products completely made in America, and, more specifically, made in Massachusetts. Everything except the stitching - done through a subcontractor in Central Massachusetts - is done in Lynn.
“People say to us all the time, ‘These could be made for pennies in China,’ ’’ Carman said. “Yeah, of course they could be. But that is not why we started this company, and we just can’t sell out like that. Basically, we want to be a household name. That’s really what we want to do.
