About Red Delicious

The designer

I'm Emma Roscoe, artist and owner of Red Delicious. I've been making things forever, with art and creativity part of my genetic makeup. After a successful career in the media I returned to art and eventually found a way to combine my creative drive with the ambition to have my own business.

I founded the Red Delicious label in 2003, using my knowledge of color and pattern to create original designs for the collection of bags and accessories. I make the collection in my Seattle studio.

The label

Red Delicious was born from a desire for bags that look good and work even better. Out of a combination of frustration, the serendipitous appearance of a sewing machine and a lifetime of making things, the search for just the right bag became a business.

I was looking for a bag that looked good enough to use daytime and evening, with an across-the-body strap that was comfortable and that would last me a long time. But none of the bags I saw as I shopped around fit my wish list. They just didn’t suit my style.

I’ve always made things. I made a coin purse when I was about 10 that I loved. So I thought I’d make my perfect bag… how hard could that be?

The sewing machine came easy. As I was telling a friend one day that I’d try to pick one up for about $100, I saw a vendor at Fremont Market putting out a second hand machine for sale… for $100. The universe had spoken.

Making the bag was harder. Sewing a simple unlined bag was straightforward, but turning my vision of the perfect bag into reality - particularly as I’d hardly sewn anything in years - was quite a challenge.

Fortunately, I tapped into a previously unknown passion for playing with fabric and that first across-the-body bag came to be. With the fabric bug biting hard, and lots more ideas for bags flowing, I realized this could be the creative business idea I’d been seeking.

Months of daily sewing later - trying out ideas, developing designs, and honing sewing techniques - Red Delicious was a label and the first bags were put on sale at a holiday crafts fair. They were bought, and a real business was born.

Why handmade

I really enjoy being a hands-on artist, selecting beautiful lengths of fabric, deciding on eye-catching combinations and making them into distinctive bags and accessories that also have practical purpose.

I'm tremendously fulfilled by the creative process and by producing top quality work which is constantly fresh and exciting. And I love to see how delighted my customers are to own an attractive and well-made piece of art that they can carry every day.

By hand making Red Delicious bags and accessories, and selling them at arts venues which feature exclusively hand made goods, I'm part of a vibrant and growing community of professional artists across the country who are enriching both the cultural landscape and the economy.