the willows

"The Willow Tote is essentially two bags in one - we embraced the seemingly very English common-sense approach to what you need from your bag - it needs to be useful as well as beautiful, and we think this one is."

"Recently, there has definitely been a shift towards bags with versatility; a piece that can be practical for more than one occasion and combine form with function and the Willow tote has both. Even the perceived luxury and frivolity of a clutch bag has now come to mean something practical, something that can be used time and time again."

Emma Hill, creative director of Mulberry (x)

Being the last British luxury brand to still manufacture in England, Mulberry has firmly established itself as a British heritage brand & as quintessentially English. So much so, they recently launched the so-called Brilliant Britain Guide.

The brand named after the leafy neighbourhood in West London also just opened its second factory in Somerset, called The Willows. And the brand's new bag was promptly named after it.

So far, Mulberry bags have always had something a little bit undone about them, bags you would just let plop to the floor & not even think twice about getting it its own chair. The Alexa, especially, I can picture at a festival, surrounded by mud everywhere. It has a sturdy utility about it.

The Willow feels a bit more precious, a bit more clean than what they usually offer, but also a bit more playful. It is the kind of bag that belongs in tea shop. The one in mint, especially. How well it would fit in with the afternoon tea sets at Claridge's.

Under Emma Hill the brand seems to finally be coming into its own, with a very clear direction of where they want to go. Demonstrated by the fact that they've started collaborating with master storyteller Tim Walker. And in my opinion there's nothing like a good coherent story to firmly establish a brand. It is like she has made the Britishness-factor of the brand even stickier.

"We both love the idea of storytelling: everything from the product through to the store to the music at our shows is a whole story."

Emma Hill on Mulberry's collaboration with Tim Walker (x)

paris buys

I practically haven't taken off the Pierre Caron bracelet ever since buying it in Paris in September last year. It's very simple - no inscription on it, no nothing. Surprisingly enough, I have found simple, well-made jewellery at reasonable prices extremely hard to find, which is why I treasure the bracelet even more.

The plum-coloured ballerinas I also took back home from Paris. And now that Spring is finally here to stay, they are being worn for all their money's worth. Turns out plum lends itself to a lot of different colour combinations.
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I like on the internet this week:

1. A little spring poetry, presented by miss little lime.
2. These pointed Tabitha Simmons loafer look-a-likes by H&M.
3. 12hrs - a new kind of travel guide.

beautiful ruins

 

 

 

 

How much does this make you want to escape to sunnier realms right this minute?

Off to Portofino would I go. Though sipping wine & lemonade on Mykonos doesn't sound half bad either.

I am not picky like that. What about you? Anybody already got plans for the summer?

Here's a little recommended beach reading & summer music in advance.

(Arizona Muse for Vogue Russia)

delvaux, from the kingdom of belgium

Seems like the oldest fine leather luxury goods House finally recognized the worth of good product placement with Sienna Miller and Alexa Chung suddenly toting around the brands' Madame. Personally, I'm loving the two examples above in dove blue and rose poudré. 

The name Madame, of course, evokes someone properly grown-up. Someone chic, like the ultimate sophisticate Catherine Deneuve. As Christa D'Souza recently said in Vogue UK, it'd be the sort of bag to mark "the momentous passage from mere graduate to Person with a Proper Job."