Linda Ricci, Bixie Studios
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In September 2021, Gladwyne native Linda Ricci launched Bixie Studios, her line of handbags, scarves, home and lifestyle accessories. From tote bags to iPad cases and dinnerware, Bixie’s products are emblazoned with Ricci’s graphic prints which, like the woman herself, are colorfully bold, smartly sophisticated and unapologetically unique. One would expect nothing less from a member of Episcopal Academy’s first class to include women. Now happily ensconced in Bella Vista, Ricci has her products, which range from $42 – $348, and gift cards available on her website.
MLT: What’s your earliest memory of designing? Did it start when you were a child?
Ricci: I think designing repetitive patterns started with Legos. When I was a child, I’d use the colors to design pretty “walls” for my Lego houses and I loved making Spirograph circles. As a teenager, I was obsessed with medieval manuscripts, calligraphy and gilded letters. In my 20s, I designed stained glass windows, which segued into hot glass. That led me to metalsmithing when I started turning my hot glass pieces into jewelry. My silversmithing typically integrated repetitive patterns inspired by global cultures and architecture from Morocco, Japan, India, and elsewhere. These inspirations also inform the designs I’m using for Bixie Studios. Travel has had a huge impact on me as an artist, combined with my natural tendency towards geometric patterns.
MLT: What colors and materials are you drawn to?
Ricci: I love all intense, bright colors, which you can clearly see in my designs. I’m very partial to combinations like fuchsia and bright orange or lime green, or blue and orange. In regards to materials, I like good quality, as in good leather and real silk, which you can definitely see in Bixie Studios’ products.
MLT: When do you do your best creative work? Morning, night, winter, spring, highly caffeinated, with music, after meditation, in solitude?
Ricci: I tend to be most prolific after 10 pm, although when I’m on a roll I’ll barely eat or sleep for a few days while I’m chasing something in my head. My mother calls me a terrier; once I sink my teeth into something, I don’t look left or right until I’m done. Hyper focusing is a real joy, and a real curse.
MLT: Name your biggest business success. The thing you are proud of, the thing that makes you smile, the thing that encouraged you to keep going …
Ricci: I’m proud that I’ve managed to get a line of products designed, plus do all the branding work, create the website, and figure out the payment integration. I’d really like to be creating all the time, but you have to do a lot of things to get a business rolling. They are time consuming tasks that I’m rather proud of myself for doing.
MLT: Fill in the blank: I will be so excited when ____ wears my product.
Ricci: I’ll be most excited when I see a normal, everyday woman walking down the street in Wayne with one of my handbags or scarves. There are so many wonderful brands and designers to choose from, so the fact that someone chose mine for no other reason than they like it is more fulfilling to me than any seeing any celebrity with a Bixie Studios product.