About Sambag

Sam Wagner director and designer launched Sambag in 1996. Following a trip to New York she created a small range of bags that she sold at Sydney’s Paddington Markets. The demand for these gave her the confidence to complement the brand by extending it to shoes.

In 1998, she showed at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, lifting the Sambag profile and confirming its place with the fashion conscious.

Her first store, with it signature blue façade, opened in Woollahra, Sydney in 2005. Clothes, a range of cashmere knitwear, swimwear and a select range of children’s wear were added to the label, all presented to the customer in a clear, chic way. Other stores in NSW and Victoria soon followed.

One of the label’s strengths is that it answered to needs of the original customers – and Wagner herself – to provide stylish but affordable fashion that worked effortlessly with the client’s lifestyle.

Worn by celebrities from Elle Macpherson down, the Sambag ballet flat has been a big part of the brand’s success. Presented each season in a range of prints, colours and fabrics, the shoe has become something of a signature with Australia’s savvy women.

“Sam Wagner has built a formidable fashion empire on the back of her signature ballet flats and tote bags." – Vogue Australia

Wagner lives in Woollahra with her two daughters and runs the business out of her warehouse in Waterloo.