The Amethyst Handbag Library is a design service assembled by of a team of handbag professionals, designers and manufacturing experts. AHL is the first service to bring computer aided design tools to the handbag industry, providing you with the foundation of designing. The AHL's team of designers, research the global market, we work fast to provide you with the freshest silhouettes and key treatments that are happening in today's market place. The Amethyst Handbag Library is an illustrated breakdown of the key shapes and treatments happening in handbags. The Library is composed of thousands of high quality line drawings categorized by silhouettes, components and textures. Using the AHL's design features can help you manipulate your images within seconds, giving you the edge to move faster than your competition in this quick paced industry.

Amethyst was founded in 1992 when handbag designer Valerie Barad envisioned integrating the design capabilities of computers into the handbag industry as an accelerated form of doing business. Using the Amethyst Handbag Library eliminates hours of work and research, allowing you to focus more on the design interpretation and details to meet your rigorous deadlines.

The AHL services the handbag industry with the ability to save tens of thousands of dollars in development from purchasing at retail to developing samples. The simple-to-use tools can create near photographic images that buyers can see and comprehend and manufacturers can understand and construct.

Handbag industry top retailers and manufacturers have purchased the AHL. By popular demand we publish new volumes twice a year focusing on key looks, trends, prints, trims and details. AHL's customers include: Dooney & Burke, Accessory Network, Nine West, Oroton, Inge Christopher, Jones of New York, Kipling, Federated, K Mart, Mervyns, Jane Shilton, Oroton, Wylson, Diver and Timberland.

AHL is the perfect mix of technology and trend, fashion and function, the essential tool for handbag designers and professionals. AHL saves designers and industry professionals, countless hours in development, leaving you with time to do what you love best, Create!

Valerie Barad was born in England where she had been a designer for the British soap opera Coronation Street. Valerie, a talented fashion designer who moved from apparel into handbag design some 35 years ago, soon became one of the most copied handbag designers in the USA. Valerie was the original creator of 'The Organizer' and the 'Alarm Bag'.

Valerie, a woman ahead of her time, envisioned integrating the design capabilities of computers into the handag industry as an accelerated form of doing business. The idea was to catalog all the existing handbag models that Valerie had collected from her shopping trips around the world. The result, thousands of handbag shapes and details to stimulate designers and give them more time to be creative.

The Amethyst Handbag Library was created with the collaboration of Marco Farfani, a leading Italian designer; Richard Ingersoll, an American designer and a young support team of accessory designers. Now in 2005, Valerie has teamed up with her daughter and designer Laurelle Barad to launch the latest addition of the Amethyst Handbag Library.