CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Commercial artist Amy Davis, who illustrated a fashion column in New York models her LeSportsac "City Satchel" and "Stella" handbags. The bags feature her Backstage design, inspired by the hidden frenzy of fashion shows. Above, a LeSportsac clutch.

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Fame’s in the bag

Life is looking up for designer
Amy Davis with her new
LeSportsac handbag collection

As a commercial fashion illustrator, Amy Davis likes to think that she's "infecting pop culture." "That way anyone can own a piece of my art," she said. "I prefer it to fine art because I don't dig the elitism of the so-called 'art world.' I want anyone and everyone to be able to afford my work."

Case in point: Davis said the biggest break of her career came when she finally saw her design prints plastered all over the Fall 2005 LeSportsac Artist Edition Collection at the handbag-maker's Ala Moana shop two weeks ago after nearly two years of work with the noted fashion line.

She blithely admits that she's a bit of a "fame whore" -- taking a cue from the title of one of her husband Jon Moritsugu's notorious underground films. Davis' notoriety also includes being his stalwart partner in art-crime, as well as a regular in his cheapo trash-glam flicks.

The couple's life has been turned upside down of late. After moving from their longtime home in San Francisco to be nearer Moritsugu's family in Honolulu, they found themselves, six months later, signing a lease to buy a house on Vashon Island, southwest of Seattle, after being evicted from their cozy pink Manoa Valley house due to our profit-driven real-estate market.

But they're looking forward to moving on to the Pacific Northwest, where the climate is reminiscent of Long Island, N.Y., where Davis grew up.

She's philosophical about the move back to the mainland. "It's not a negative, just a change in life," she said. "It's been a big journey for us so far. We had problems letting go of being here and were upset, but we're excited to be moving on."

As for the LeSportsac job, Davis has her ex-editor at Paper magazine, Kim Hastreiter, to thank. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Davis created an illustrated column populated by waif-like fashion-world habitues for the New York-based lifestyle publication Style Fiends for nine years.

"I had great carte blanche doing that column, but it was a lot of work," she remembered. "I was always trying to be cutting edge, but it got very exhausting. Six of the nine years I would go to fashion shows, first in New York, and then later drag shows in San Francisco, which are the same things basically, you know."

But when the direction and design of Paper changed six months ago, Davis was laid off, spurring the move to Hawaii.

Before the move, however, Hastreiter passed one of the magazine's Davis-designed Christmas cards to the president of LeSportsac. That connection came back full circle to Davis, who remembers it being "such a blast getting my first LeSportsac bag and waltzing around high school feeling absolutely and devastatingly hip."

"I've been a fan of LeSportsac's for over 20 years. I like the material (rip-stop nylon); it's so durable. It really has a strange retro '80s feel, but still current and poppy."

DECIDING ON the final design, called Backstage, for LeSportsac was more of a give-and-take affair than Davis thought it would be. With the fashion line's art director Julianne Hirst, "we started off discussing different thematic things ... fooling around with 10 ideas.

"It was more of a collaborative effort. I'm used to ... just being hired as an illustrator, where you get to do your piece on your own. This was a learning experience for me, working with people like Julianne. She's really brilliant, and it was great working with a great art director. It kind of honed the movie for me, the overall vision, as it were."

Davis' Backstage design is her take on the frenzy of what happens behind the scenes at the annual September fashion shows. While the models take the runway looking cool and collected, several feet away, removed from the audience's view, are "models getting pricked by pins, getting makeup in their eyes, a girl getting burnt hair from a curling iron so she has to use a wig, and there's the ingenue trying to break in. ... It's these teenage girls turning into vixens, total fantasy. Nobody looks like that in real life!"

Davis adds a fanciful element with a mixture of cherubs and lil' demons creating their magical auras of muse-like positive energy and chaos.

Davis admits she "completely lost my mind" when she saw the bags in the shop. "The design came out exactly how I wanted. The colors -- the dayglo, pastels and primaries -- came out right."

Prices for the line range from $16 for a cosmetic or tissue pouch to $110 for a weekend duffle bag.

With the launch of the Backstage line in the United States, to be followed next week internationally, things seem to be finally looking up for Davis.

"This will mean more exposure for me, and will hopefully make me more of a lucrative illustrator," she said. "I'm a commercial artist, the opposite from Jon. I'm a fame whore. If given the opportunity, I'll even do an Absolut Vodka print ad."