ABOUT COOLER COUTURE

Kristen Zaleski is not the person you usually find designing handbags. With a Masters degree in Social work from USC, Kristen has spent her time doing therapy, research, and behavioral interventions. The handbag part came kind of by accident. That is, a way to help herself feel better about her image and lose weight. Or so she thought.

After receiving her Masters degree, Kristen found herself a little overweight and desperate to change her lifestyle. Now a career woman, Kristen packed her lunch everyday to resist the urge to buy fast food, and save a few pennies from her already skimpy social work salary. But bringing her lunch to work wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Besides carrying a large cooler everyday to and from work, there were no options for Kristen to carry her needed items such as food, make-up, medicine, and even a pre-workout snack before she headed to the gym.

Determined to not let a simple food transport issue get in the way, Kristen decided to design a bag that she could use everyday to help her in her mission. Soon, other women saw Kristen’s new design and asked her to do the same for them. And voila, cooler couture was born.

Now if Kristen could just find a way to make her student loans disappear…