Meet Stone Cloud. The latest bag from Published By, an accessories brand based in Vienna, it’s covered in reflective irregular shapes that seem to float across its surface—at once organic and futuristic—as though an Anish Kapoor sculpture has been sized down to a purse. Such a striking design leads to the question: How is it made?
Good thing its creator Christoph Tsetinis will giddily explain to anyone who asks. Since 2020, when he and partner Ruby Wallen started the brand, he has looked to the automotive and tech industries to develop bags that signal a conceptual approach to luxury.
For Stone Cloud, the 100 pebble-like components are 3D-printed using recycled and repurposed plastic and are then clicked into an interior frame. Italian craftsmanship on the leather inner pouch merges with German engineering for the chrome stones. Thanks to this modular configuration, each bag takes about four hours to assemble. Along with existing Published By bags, this underscores how Tsetinis and Wallen are determined to reshape a category where classic still typically outperforms experimental.
“It’s always about really pushing the boundaries to the point that we can afford it or build it or produce it,” says Tsetinis. “It’s really challenging, but I think that’s exactly what we do in-house so well by just sitting there and not giving up. Other brands might have said, ‘Let’s just not do it.’’
At a presentation during Paris Fashion Week, the duo also showed off X-Ray, a sinuous hard-shell style coated in a heat-reactive material intended for the forensic measurement of car temperatures. When exposed to sunlight or touch, it temporarily brightens from black to white (not unlike the Hypercolor T-shirts that were a fleeting sensation in the early ’90s). As a nostalgic nod to Tsetinis’s memories of rave culture, Published By’s core chrome styles will come in a vivid shade of yellow and a gradient icy blue finish. They could be displayed in a living room the way an art collector might stage a Koons.
Hugo Preece, the senior buyer of bags at Browns in London has supported the brand since its early days. “It’s not often an industry outsider comes in and reinvents a genre, but that’s exactly what Ruby and Christoph were able to do with Published By,” he says, describing Stone Cloud as “the ultimate iteration of their vision—fully functional, simultaneously deconstructed, and flawlessly finished.”
In the world of Published By, form and function are valued equally. No matter the bag or body chain, every piece is conceived as unisex (Phil’s Third Eye is named after Tsetinis’s brother). Aside from appearing young, the people featured in their images are widely representational.
With Tsetinis, 34, directing his efforts towards vision and fabrication, it’s fair to say that Published By would not exist without Wallen, 29. Soon after moving from Christchurch, New Zealand, where she grew up, they met through a mutual friend. Having grown up in Hallein, a small mountain town near Salzburg, he studied carpentry and wood technology before pivoting to fashion design, which included a stint interning at Alexander McQueen. She had completed her studies in finance and began working in private equity and as a strategy consultant for automotive companies. Once Tsetinis received a grant from the Austrian Fashion Association, he pursued bags more deliberately and says he begged Wallen to join him on the journey. As commercial director, she brings pragmatism to his “romantic” (his word) mindset.
Which is to say, they simply click. “I would never want to tell him how or what to design. We have total respect for each other’s roles,” says Wallen. “But in the last year or so, we started to work more in tandem.” Beaming at this point, Tsetinis adds, “I can’t believe it sometimes; like, I want to travel back in time and hug my 16-year-old self. I’m working with my partner who I absolutely adore.”
For every glimmer of an idea, Tsetinis uses 3D modeling to establish whether it’s possible. If he has imagined a shape that the software rejects, he says he will find a middle ground of sorts. “Especially in the mechanical engineering world, things look a certain way because they need to. For us, it was about not accepting this fact,” he says. “I know it’s really uncommon to build like this, but I do so because it looks great. And if I were to do it the easy way, it would lose its charm and sexiness.”
Blazing this trail has also entailed circuitous searches for suppliers and fabricators, and they have seemingly endless stories from around the world. There was the town in China where they visited a jewelry factory that resembled a miniature White House; the team at the University of Ulm in Germany who mistakenly believed Tsetinis was working on a doctoral thesis when he reached out to inquire how to galvanize plastic; and the producer of Lamborghini glove compartments who ultimately agreed to line Published By’s bags with soft flocking.
Initially, they wanted to work with traditional fashion accessories producers for the chrome bags but they did not have the technology or knowledge to make hybrid chrome bags like Stone Cloud. “The goal was not, ‘Ok, let’s make the most complicated case for ourselves; but we were obsessed with these shapes,” says Tsetinis. They ended up finding a leather partner in Padua, Pelletteria Graziella, who could integrate all the parts.
Among those who value their craft is Marjorie Hernandez of The Dematerialized, a marketplace for virtual fashion. They offered her the first Stone Cloud prototype last summer; wherever she goes, it is a conversation piece. She says she has been captivated by Published By’s entire approach, comparing their creations to the work of the German designer Dieter Rams. “I even referred to it as the Birkin of the 21st century,” she says.
There are other signs that the Published By breakout is nigh. Beyoncé has carried the folded and crinkled Mayzie style (inspired by a taco!) as well as the curvier Ruby’s Lost Stone. Wallen says sales are doubling every year. Currently, production is hovering around 4,000 pieces, but given that the brand is on track to close a 1-million-euro seed round later this month made possible by “an array of top-tier global fashion investors,” they intend to scale accordingly.
For now, they have produced just upwards of 200 Stone Cloud bags, which will be available through their site along with Fred Segal in Los Angeles and Antidote in Atlanta. Relative to obvious It bags at the luxury level and accounting for the workmanship, the €965 price seems fair (Ruby’s Lost Stone retails for €625).
Importantly, the brand name does not limit the duo to bags. Swearing no favoritism, Tsetinis recounts its origin: a sleepless night that led to leafing through the pages of Vogue. He landed on the masthead and knew instantly. Published By might one day invite a guest designer, or else expand into other design realms—some already underway.
There is a sneaker in collaboration with Japanese brand Grounds. There is also a chair, a special commission from the fashion investor Carmen Busquets, who is convinced that Tsetinis can come up with a design that complements a distinctive table that she owns by Zaha Hadid. They hope to present the chair at next year’s Art Basel.
“I find their commitment to sustainable production and their drive to push the luxury industry’s boundaries really inspiring,” Busquets writes in an email, noting that she discovered the brand via Browns, then met the duo through Mimma Viglezio, a creative consultant who has been a mentor to them. “I was really impressed by the wealth of knowledge they possess at such a young age and that they thrive on having an unconventional approach.”
Now that they have surmounted the fundamental challenges, Wallen says they are able to concentrate on where Published By might be in three to five years. “I was familiar with raising money and venture capital, but I think nothing prepares you for doing it yourself the first time. It’s an incredible process.”
Would unlimited funds prove a game changer? Aside from his dream of designing a car and/or a yacht, Tsetinis answers with a double negative that confirms that he takes a clear-eyed view of their future. “I would be the same hands-on as now, and I wouldn’t be different in terms of behavior—although maybe I would not look at my Uber bills. Actually, not having unlimited funds gives you creativity that you cannot buy.”