Monday, 6 February 2012
Homage to the Radley picture bag collection
Found this Youtube clip featuring all the different picture bags that Radley have designed over the years.
Saturday, 17 December 2011
The history of Radley bags according to Shanev :)
Brrrrr it's cold here today. We had the first touch of snow yesterday and it looks like the snow that already fell has frozen up.
Today was not a day to go outside so I've spent it online browsing at different websites.
As you know I'm a massive fan of Radley bags and so I decided to look into the history of the company and see how they all started and this is what I found.
Radley are a British company that was started in the 1990's. It was the brainchild of an Australian woman (so maybe not a 100% British company after all) called Rachel Harder. Rachel was an architect by trade and moved to London to start a new life. She got a little bored with the work and looked at other ways of making a living.
She hit upon the idea of making handbags and this is where Radley bags started from.
She opened up a market stall in London and started selling her handbags from there.
The orders started to flood in and she was soon struggling to keep up.
She's never looked back and although she's no longer at the head of the company she can be proud of the fact that she is credited with starting the whole Radley handbags phenomenon.
I love stories like this as it proves that someone with nothing can become someone with something. One woman's vision and love of design led her to create the best selling handbag brand in the UK.....how inspiring !!
When I was reading up on the history of Radley I did get a little confused as there was also mention of a woman called Ruth Pinnock. It might be that Ruth became the head designer at Radley but that's something I'd like to find out about later. If anyone knows more about Ruth's role in Radley then please let me know.
What I do know is that Ruth Pinnock left Radley to start her own handbag company called Ciccia but instead of using dogs as the logo she uses cats....neat eh ?
Today was not a day to go outside so I've spent it online browsing at different websites.
As you know I'm a massive fan of Radley bags and so I decided to look into the history of the company and see how they all started and this is what I found.
She hit upon the idea of making handbags and this is where Radley bags started from.
She opened up a market stall in London and started selling her handbags from there.
The orders started to flood in and she was soon struggling to keep up.
She's never looked back and although she's no longer at the head of the company she can be proud of the fact that she is credited with starting the whole Radley handbags phenomenon.
I love stories like this as it proves that someone with nothing can become someone with something. One woman's vision and love of design led her to create the best selling handbag brand in the UK.....how inspiring !!
When I was reading up on the history of Radley I did get a little confused as there was also mention of a woman called Ruth Pinnock. It might be that Ruth became the head designer at Radley but that's something I'd like to find out about later. If anyone knows more about Ruth's role in Radley then please let me know.
What I do know is that Ruth Pinnock left Radley to start her own handbag company called Ciccia but instead of using dogs as the logo she uses cats....neat eh ?
Friday, 16 December 2011
My passion for Radley bags
Ok, so I know this is my first post and I was kinda thinking what do I say. In fact, what do I write about ???
People in the know say the best place to start is to write about something you're passionate about. I had a think about it and decided I couldn't really write about men so went with my second option which was handbags and more specifically, Radley bags.
Now if you're reading this in the United States you may well have heard of this brand but only a few years ago Radley were only available in the United Kingdom (I know this as my friend in Australia would buy a Radley handbag over here every time she came to visit).
I think in the US Radley are known as "Radley London" but I'm not sure on that. Over here they're known as "Radley".....plain and simple !
So you may be wondering why I love these handbags so much (or maybe you're not). I remember seeing my first Radley bag around 3 years ago. I was shopping at the Trafford Centre with some girlfriends and we saw a woman with this bag with a really cutesie picture of a seaside scene. I instantly fell in love with it and asked the lady where she bought it from. She seemed kind of proud that someone was complimenting her on her taste in handbags and explained to me that the handbag was a Radley. I've been hooked ever since !
I know it's not very original and doesn't do much for my innate creative fashion sense but I ended up buying the exact same handbag that that lady had that time. The handbag was called "Beside the Seaside" and I revelled in the attention I received whenever I was out carrying it.
Now I know Mulberry bags are cool and trendy but unless you know a little about bags the fact is you could be hit over the head with a Mulberry bag and not know it whereas Radley picture bags are unmistakeable. Officially, they're called "signature bags". Basically, Radley design two "signature" bags each year which consists of a colourful and fun design featuring the company logo (the Scottie dog) in a variety of different poses.
Sometimes the company gets the design wrong as in "I'm Radley get me outta' here". That was an awful design and I really didn't like it but most times the company produce a bag that I just wanna have !
People in the know say the best place to start is to write about something you're passionate about. I had a think about it and decided I couldn't really write about men so went with my second option which was handbags and more specifically, Radley bags.
Now if you're reading this in the United States you may well have heard of this brand but only a few years ago Radley were only available in the United Kingdom (I know this as my friend in Australia would buy a Radley handbag over here every time she came to visit).
I think in the US Radley are known as "Radley London" but I'm not sure on that. Over here they're known as "Radley".....plain and simple !
So you may be wondering why I love these handbags so much (or maybe you're not). I remember seeing my first Radley bag around 3 years ago. I was shopping at the Trafford Centre with some girlfriends and we saw a woman with this bag with a really cutesie picture of a seaside scene. I instantly fell in love with it and asked the lady where she bought it from. She seemed kind of proud that someone was complimenting her on her taste in handbags and explained to me that the handbag was a Radley. I've been hooked ever since !
I know it's not very original and doesn't do much for my innate creative fashion sense but I ended up buying the exact same handbag that that lady had that time. The handbag was called "Beside the Seaside" and I revelled in the attention I received whenever I was out carrying it.
Now I know Mulberry bags are cool and trendy but unless you know a little about bags the fact is you could be hit over the head with a Mulberry bag and not know it whereas Radley picture bags are unmistakeable. Officially, they're called "signature bags". Basically, Radley design two "signature" bags each year which consists of a colourful and fun design featuring the company logo (the Scottie dog) in a variety of different poses.
Sometimes the company gets the design wrong as in "I'm Radley get me outta' here". That was an awful design and I really didn't like it but most times the company produce a bag that I just wanna have !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)