Tyler Ellis: Iconic Bags, Handcrafted in Florence
and Carried on the Red Carpet

Image Credit: Tyler Ellis

Bridging Heritage and Modernity in Luxury Shopify Design

Tyler Ellis sits in a unique space within contemporary luxury. Rooted in craftsmanship yet alive with the energy of red carpets and global recognition, the brand bridges the traditional artistry of hard luxury with the pace and personality of modern culture.

A Los Angeles–born designer, Tyler Ellis creates handbags carried by Hollywood and international royalty. Each piece blends Californian ease with Italian precision, handmade by Florentine artisans who uphold generations of tradition. For years, they have symbolised quiet confidence and understated power; carried by women whose influence extends beyond fashion. But while the products embodied refinement, the online experience needed to reflect the same degree of artistry, storytelling, and emotion.

Design & Build Co was appointed to reimagine how the Tyler Ellis brand lived online, creating a digital flagship that mirrors the red-carpet experience. An expression of craft, confidence, and timeless glamour. By merging UX strategy, brand design, and advanced Shopify development, we created an experience that feels both editorial and effortless, combining the emotional depth of luxury storytelling with the precision and performance of a world-class digital flagship.

From Brand Discovery to Delivery: A Strategic Process for eCommerce Success

The collaboration with Tyler Ellis followed a defined, end-to-end process designed to deliver both creative clarity and technical precision. Beginning with a tender and alignment phase, we worked closely with Tyler and her team to establish goals, audiences, and creative direction. This led into a comprehensive Brand Discovery phase, where a new visual and digital language for the brand was developed, setting the foundation for all subsequent design work.

A series of design sprints followed, each focused on specific templates and UX patterns that brought the new direction to life through a balance of editorial storytelling and high-performing eCommerce functionality. The result was a bespoke Shopify 2.0 build, developed for modularity, performance, and scalability.

To ensure quality at every stage, the project underwent multi-round QA cycles before launch, covering both visual and functional testing. Finally, we created detailed Shopify and Klaviyo documentation and tutorials, empowering the Tyler Ellis team to confidently manage and evolve their new digital flagship.

Combining Content and Commerce in Luxury User Experience Design

In luxury eCommerce, meaningful differentiation comes from experience design where storytelling and technology combine to create emotional connection and conversion. For Tyler Ellis, we adopted an editorial-driven approach to eCommerce, crafting user journeys that guide visitors from discovery to desire with the same rhythm and allure as the brand’s red-carpet heritage.

For Tyler Ellis, we designed a Shopify experience that combines clarity, precision, and emotional impact. The UX was built to feel natural and intuitive, guiding customers seamlessly from browsing to purchase, while the UI reflected the brand’s craftsmanship through considered details — from tactile hover interactions to typography and scroll behaviour that mirror the brand’s physical artistry.

Behind the interface, we implemented custom Shopify development using metafields to manage complex product relationships, personalisation options, and made-to-order functionality. The result is a platform that performs with the efficiency of enterprise eCommerce while maintaining the refinement expected of a modern luxury brand.

We developed a Customised Shopify 2.0 Theme, fully modular and optimised for performance, SEO, and global scalability. Every page, from the Homepage to the Product Detail Page, was treated as an editorial canvas using structured content, responsive typography, and dynamic templates that balance beauty with usability. With reusable content modules, the site transformed into a living brand publication, blending the storytelling depth of a luxury magazine with the technical precision of an enterprise-grade Shopify build.

Central to the redesign was creating a stronger connection between celebrity and product. Custom sections were designed to showcase As Seen on the Red Carpet imagery alongside shoppable products, seamlessly linking the brand’s prestige with its craftsmanship. The interface incorporates the brand’s signature colour, Thayer Blue, used for highlight underlines and key visual accents to unify the overall tone and reinforce brand recognition throughout the experience.

Building a Unified and Personalised Luxury eCommerce Ecosystem with Shopify Development

Creating a luxury experience online demands a connected digital ecosystem where identity, functionality, and user experience operate seamlessly across every channel. For Tyler Ellis, this ecosystem was designed to mirror the craftsmanship and personal attention that define the brand. Features such as integrated monogramming allow customers to personalise their handbags with choice of foil finishes, creating a bespoke experience. Such enhancements elevate the platform beyond standard eCommerce, delivering a high-touch digital environment where UX design and craftsmanship operate in unison to embody the standards of modern luxury.

• Shopify Markets enabled Tyler Ellis to manage international pricing, currencies, and shipping with precision, creating a consistent yet localised shopping experience.
• Custom Stock Notifications informed customers about limited-edition and made-to-order pieces, maintaining visibility while preserving exclusivity.
• Klaviyo Email Templates extended the brand’s visual and verbal identity into lifecycle communications, ensuring post-purchase touchpoints felt curated and on-brand.
• Social Media Templates, a suite of over forty bespoke layouts equipped the brand with a scalable toolkit for maintaining consistency and sophistication across platforms.

From personalisation to post-purchase engagement, every element was engineered for cohesion, creating a unified luxury commerce ecosystem that embodies precision, storytelling, and enduring design integrity.

From Boutique to Browser: Creating Connection Through Custom Klaviyo Email Marketing Templates

Luxury shopping has always been ritualistic: the quiet of a boutique, the feel of a leather surface, the exchange with an expert. Translating that ritual online meant creating a digital environment that feels ceremonial, not commercial. Through a detailed Brand Discovery process, we identified a minimalist gallery aesthetic as the right visual language for North American luxury shoppers, a design direction that balances refinement with familiarity.

The online experience was approached as a curated editorial space rather than a transactional platform. Category pages function as clean, image-led galleries, while subtle motion, spacing, and rhythm evoke the quiet assurance of a boutique visit. Each interaction was designed to feel purposeful, reflecting the brand’s craftsmanship and timeless appeal.

Thoughtful UX and narrative design guide visitors through the journey from discovery to purchase, with Klaviyo-powered automations extending that experience beyond checkout to nurture long-term loyalty. Where standard Shopify templates prioritise efficiency, the new Tyler Ellis site restores emotion and intention, transforming commerce into connection that lasts long after purchase. 

What We Did

• Brand Discovery – Defined the brand’s digital positioning, visual language, and user experience principles.
• Customised Shopify 2.0 Theme – Designed and developed a fully modular, high-performance theme optimised for SEO and scalability.
• Klaviyo Email Marketing Templates – Created custom, on-brand templates for automated and campaign-based email marketing.
• Shopify Notification Email Templates – Designed and built branded transactional email templates for a cohesive post-purchase experience.
• Made-to-Order and Personalisation Logic – Implemented advanced metafield architecture to support custom orders and product personalisation.
• Hardware Variant Presentation – Developed a bespoke Product Connector Function to dynamically link hardware variants and improve UX on Product Detail Pages.
• Unified eCommerce Ecosystem – Integrated Shopify Development and Klaviyo Marketing to build a connected, data-driven luxury eCommerce experience.
  

Minimalism and Meaning in a Luxury eCommerce Experience

From the outset, our collaboration with Tyler Ellis was hands-on and strategic. Working directly with Tyler ensured every design decision reflected her creative intent, from brand storytelling to user interaction. The result is a luxury eCommerce flagship that expresses the brand’s philosophy of modern heritage, uniting craftsmanship, emotion, and innovation within a refined Shopify Plus experience.

The new digital identity is deliberately minimal and elevated, allowing the product design, photography, and craftsmanship to take centre stage. Animation of the Tyler Ellis signature, taken from a letter written by her father, designer Perry Ellis, reinforces brand lineage and authenticity while enhancing the site’s visual storytelling. Together, these elements form a cohesive UX and UI design system that is confident, contemporary, and unmistakably Tyler Ellis, a benchmark for modern fashion and luxury eCommerce design.