Parallelle’s Must-Have Bag Made the Startup a Hit. Then It Had an Identity Crisis

Annie Fan and Sung Park’s company was growing so fast, global success beckoned. But to take advantage, they’d have to do ‘the most extreme form of a ­rebrand.’

BY CLARISSA CRUZ @CLARISSANYC1

When Annie Fan and Sung Park, the wife-and-­husband team behind the viral makeup-bag line Parallelle, think back to the early days of their fledgling brand, a specific sound comes to mind. “Every time we got a sale, we’d hear that ­ka-ching!” Park says of Shopify’s cheery signature notifications, which ­increased in frequency at the company’s New York City headquarters as its bags, launched in 2022, became a favorite of influencers like Alix Earle and Peloton instructor Ally Love. The chic, sturdy cosmetics ­cases, which feature numerous compartments that hold containers and ­brushes upright, were a welcome antidote to, as Fan described it, the “big abyss” that traditional makeup bags become, in which palettes and tubes and jars collide (not to mention their liquid-y and powdery contents).

Fan, 57, watched as women in the locker room at her cycling class rushed to and from workouts with Ziploc bags full of makeup. After each session, they would lay everything out on the counter, where items could easily roll around or get wet.

After dozens of prototypes (“There might have been more than 60,” says Park), Fan designed their first bag’s current iteration: the Traveller, which has since earned glowing press mentions in Vogue, Wirecutter, and........

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