\nLia McBride: solving a work and wardrobe problem<\/p>\n
The first Scottish employee of Twitter explains to TERRY MURDEN how her tech experiences helped develop a line of luxury bags<\/p>\n
As a senior manager working in global technology companies, Lia McBride\u2019s working life involved commuting, international travel, meetings and long days carrying a laptop, chargers and other devices. She was also living with chronic back pain, which would eventually lead to major spinal and hip surgery. And a new business venture.<\/p>\n
After being advised by a specialist to use a backpack to distribute weight more evenly, she went looking for one that could work across the different parts of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted something I could wear as a backpack when I was commuting or travelling, but one that still felt like a beautiful luxury handbag when I walked into a meeting or went out for dinner,\u201d she explains. \u201cEverything seemed to ask me to choose between how it looked and how well it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unable to find it, McBride approached the problem in much the same way she would approach developing a product in tech: understand the user, identify the problem, build, test and continually refine the solution.<\/p>\n
Over the following three years, she consulted more than 100 professional women, gathering feedback through LinkedIn, Google Forms, WhatsApp, email and her own networks. She spoke to women in tech and business, mothers, frequent travellers and women with very different lifestyles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t looking for people to design the bag for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to understand how women actually use their bags, what frustrated them and what they wished worked differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same issues kept coming up. Women were carrying too much, changing bags constantly and compromising between something beautiful and something genuinely functional.<\/p>\n
Those conversations helped shape Liavella, a luxury brand based in Edinburgh that McBride now runs alongside her role as Global General Manager of AI Engineer, a company hosting AI developer conferences around the world for engineers, breakout startup founders, and AI architects.<\/p>\n
Asked how she manages both roles, her response is straightforward. \u201cI work my ass off. That\u2019s probably the honest answer!\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Edinburgh, McBride attended George Watson\u2019s College and graduated from Glasgow University. She left for London at age 25 and became Twitter\u2019s first Scottish employee, being promoted to Global Head of Events and relocating to the company\u2019s San Francisco headquarters in 2016.<\/p>\n
She left as part of a company-wide cull and as her visa was tied to her employment she was no longer eligible to remain in the US. After three years at Twitter she returned to London in early 2017.<\/p>\n
McBride aimed to blend practicality with style<\/p>\n
She joined another tech firm, Improbable, and in 2020 found herself back home in Edinburgh. Once again redundancy in 2022 saw a change of direction and she used her pay-off to invest \u00a3150,000 in building Liavella. <\/p>\n
McBride worked with an experienced production house in New York\u2019s fashion district, alongside luxury industry specialists, Italian hardware craftsmen and leather workers in China. What followed was three years of prototypes, revisions and repeated changes across the bags, hardware, proportions and construction. She was determined not to rush the development process or compromise on the product.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attitude was very much, \u2018This isn\u2019t right. Start again.\u2019 And I needed that,\u201d says McBride. \u201cThe hardest part was getting the balance right between all the things I wanted the bags to do while still making them feel like beautiful luxury handbags. It would have been easy to make something extremely functional, but that wasn\u2019t the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted the functionality to be almost invisible within the design. That is probably where the three years really went, constantly refining until the bag felt effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, she never intended to leave the tech industry permanently and a year later she joined AI Engineer. Today, she sees the two careers as complementary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI Engineer gives me exposure to global teams, growth, strategy, operations and building a company at scale. Liavella gives me the opportunity to apply those skills to something I have created from the ground up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI genuinely enjoy both. I don\u2019t think ambition has to mean choosing one thing and giving up everything else. Part of what Liavella represents is that women can build lives and careers that don\u2019t necessarily fit into one neat box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite moving into an entirely new industry, McBride found the similarities between technology and luxury product development greater than she had expected.<\/p>\n
Laptop protection, intelligent organisation, different ways of carrying, balanced weight distribution and the ability to move from work to travel to evening without changing bags all became fundamental to the designs.<\/p>\n
But turning that wish list into a luxury handbag proved considerably harder than McBride expected. \u201cThe biggest surprise was how much harder physical product is,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn tech, you can change something and deploy it. With a physical product, every decision has a knock-on effect. Change a proportion by a few millimetres and suddenly you\u2019re looking at the hardware, construction, weight, balance and manufacturing differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside developing the brand, she established Lia McBride Marketing to undertake consultancy and contract work, some of which is covered by non-disclosure agreements. She still takes on occasional consulting projects.<\/p>\n
McBride\u2019s ambitions for Liavella are significant. International expansion, particularly into the US and other key luxury markets, is part of the plan, alongside selective retail partnerships and eventually an expanded product collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiavella is starting with two core designs because I wanted to prove the idea first: that women can have fewer bags without having fewer options,\u201d she says. \u201cThere will be more products, but every new piece needs to solve a genuine problem and earn its place in a woman\u2019s wardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n
PERSONAL CHECKLIST<\/p>\n
Birthplace: Edinburgh<\/p>\n
Education: George Watson\u2019s College, Edinburgh; University of Glasgow.<\/p>\n
Career highlights: Began as a marketing campaign co-ordinator in London, then worked in marketing for Twitter. Spent five years at tech firm Improbable, later launching Liavella and joining AI Engineer, now general manager.<\/p>\n
Age: 45<\/p>\n
Residence? Family? <\/p>\n
I live in Edinburgh, having moved back permanently in 2020. My family is also based here, including my parents, sister, niece and nephew, along with other relatives.<\/p>\n
How do you describe your approach to work?<\/p>\n
I am very systems-oriented. I like solving problems and I am always thinking about how something can work better rather than simply how it looks.<\/p>\n
How Scottish is Liavella?<\/p>\n
Our bags are designed in Scotland, refined in New York City fashion district and expertly crafted in China. We believe true craftsmanship knows no borders. While our brand is proudly rooted in Edinburgh, our handbags are meticulously crafted in China \u2013 the global epicentre of luxury leather production. It\u2019s a little-known truth that\u00a0over 60\u201370% of luxury handbags are made in China, where artisans have perfected their craft through generations of experience. Unlike many brands, we don\u2019t hide this \u2013 we celebrate it.<\/p>\n
We work closely with a trusted team of artisans whose expertise spans decades. These are the same highly skilled craftspeople who produce for many of the world\u2019s most respected luxury brands. We\u2019ve spent time in our factory, building real relationships and ensuring every piece meets our standards. Manufacturing in China allows us to honour true craftsmanship while creating a smarter, more balanced model of production.<\/p>\n
How does AI affect Liavella?<\/p>\n
AI plays an important role in how we operate Liavella, particularly as we\u2019re building an independent luxury brand with a lean team and limited resources.<\/p>\n
We use AI tools and agents across several areas of the business, from administrative tasks and research to briefing preparation, email support and content creation.<\/p>\n
For example, we use Lindy and Town as AI assistants to support day-to-day workflows, while Claude helps us with the design and development of our Shopify website. This has saved us hundreds of hours of work and significantly reduced the need for external developer support.<\/p>\n
We also use ChatGPT for image generation and editing, helping us create marketing and social media content without always needing to organise lengthy and expensive photoshoots.<\/p>\n
Coming from a technology background, I\u2019ve been able to bring that same approach to LIAVELLA, using emerging tools to work more efficiently and build a luxury brand without the overheads traditionally associated with launching a fashion business.<\/p>\n
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