They say it’s going to be a hot one…
not as hot as us taking a last minute decision to do the newly-launched Spirit of Summer Fair, screeching out of Glastonbury and up the M4.
If you’re in London, and would like to see our collection up close, then please pop along to Stand D33 (right next to the champagne bar, where we are currently cooling down)…
we’re there until Sunday.
click here for details
Two of our designs have been featured in the Financial Times in an article about women’s bags that ‘work, rest and play’. They were looking for bags that work in tandem to deliver function, flexibility and a certain fabulousness.
The FT chose our Amelia (packed with pockets and lots of room while remaining elegant and sleek) and our Clem Clutch, for carrying your essentials on hand in the office, out at lunch, or at the check in desk.
As you can see from my well-used bags below, the Clutch is designed to fit perfectly in the Amelia’s central pocket, while leaving loads of space for a laptop, a pair of heels, and your other daily essentials. (I find it a particularly useful combination when traveling).
For a limited period, we’re offering £100 off when you buy the two together…. select 2 bags in the colours you want, then the £100 will be deducted on the checkout page.
Wow, what a year it’s been (and what a year to come, for sure). Definitely a time of change, and a chance to revisit what’s important.
We started that early last year, with the biggest change being a move out of Bath down the road to Glastonbury. Only an hour away, but a huge difference to our lives, in a very positive way. More space, less traffic, and the return of an inner peace that had been slipping away.
Of course, selling and buying a house and moving business premises at the same time is pretty stressful in a ‘normal’ year. Last summer it was a miracle anything happened with the economic climate as it is. Anyway, someone, somewhere, smiled on us and here we are.
We had a good Christmas, with a great time at the Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia.
Thank you to all the returning and new customers who we met there… as a primarily internet-based business, it was fantastic to have that face-to-face feedback and a reminder that it is all worthwhile.
So now we’re into 2009 and working on finalising new designs for the year ahead… please feel free to join our mailing list if you’d like me to let you know when those come in.
Best wishes,
Judy
Ever since we launched the business online last year I have been asked “When can we see Bown in London?”
So we are over the moon to be selected by one of the finest stores in the world, Selfridges, as our first London stockist.
You can find Bown designs in the Mens Accessories department, on the First Floor.
They say:
“Come into Selfridges to find this season hottest collection of Men’s accessories.
Find leather bags from exciting new designer BOWN…
Hyped new brands like BOWN, are infusing style back into men’s classic leather accessories. With masculine clean lines and finishes their attaches, overnight, weekend bags etc… are becoming de rigueur amongst stylish travellers.”
We say:
“Whoopie!”
Please click here to read more on the Selfridges website…
Tipped to be the bag for the year ahead, the clutch has made a welcome return as an antidote to the over-sized bags that have been around for the last few seasons.
I think something about a way a clutch is used, tucked under the arm or held in the hand, immediately lends a certain air of elegant nonchalance.
We’ve got 3 new styles that fit the bill from day to evening, smart to casual, home or away…
Use one on its own instead of a handbag (for the minimalists among you), or as a useful extra tucked in a tote bag; ideal for popping out for lunch, after-work drinks, or as a travel wallet.
Dan and I have just got back from a trip to Italy, where we visited the family business that hand-makes our solid brass hardware. Here’s a few shots of the experts at work; forming, welding, and polishing the brass into shape. We have some really beautiful new hardware coming through on new designs over the next few weeks, and like our other hardware, it’s all made here in Florence.
We’d like to say a big “thank you” to all the visitors and customers who came to see us at the Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia last week…
Dan and I had a fantastic time meeting you, and your comments were truly wonderful. We are exhausted, but very happy!
If you are looking for our new designs, which were at the Fair but not yet on the web site, we are getting them photographed and should have them up to view over the next couple of weeks. Please sign up to my newsletter now to get the latest news on new styles and our forthcoming events…
If there is anything in particular you’d like to order now, please feel free to ring me on 0117 303 9080 and I’ll be happy to help.
Dan and I were in Milan, by the way, for the Leather Fair, Anteprima, to see what was new for AW08 and to introduce Dan to some of the tanners I use. He asked, how, out of so many tanneries, do I choose which leathers are the best?
Here’s how I tried to explain the difference between vegetable-tanned and other (namely chrome, synthetic and corrected) leathers.
Much like Dan’s bracing cups of tea, the term leather ‘tanning’ comes from an ancient process of steeping animal skins in a brew of leaves, bark, nuts or other vegetable-based extracts… which release tannins.
Using ‘recipes’ tried and tested over centuries, and with the ‘brew’ carefully made stronger and stronger through the process, the tannins penetrate to the very structure of the fibres in the skin, permanently altering their chemical structure to create leather.
It is an incredibly involved and precise skill to get it right that can’t be rushed (it takes over four weeks to vegetable tan a hide), and there are many other processes that are performed before and after to bring us the material we know as leather.
But, in essence, it is this chemistry between vegetable extract and flesh that creates vegetable tanned leather. It is still made today by some specialist tanneries, mostly around the Florence area of Tuscany, and wherever possible I like to use it for my designs because
I’m delighted to announce that my brother, Dan, has recently joined me as Managing Director of Bown. (Here he is in Milan a few weeks ago, enjoying a piccolo and getting to know the business.)
Dan joins me after an illustrious career as Global Operations Director for DHL Express, a Sloane graduate of London Business School, and an officer in the British Army… bringing organisation, strategy, planning and bracing cups of tea to Bown Designs Ltd.
All of which are most welcome to balance my more creative side (and digestive biscuit supply).
Eating out in Bath is a bit of a mixed bag.
I have always found it difficult to recommend a restaurant here that isn’t overly expensive, grand, or just a bit, well, provincially stuffy. (I know, I probably don’t get out enough, so I am delighted to let you in on this little secret.)
The Bathwick Boatman Restaurant - not to be confused with ‘The Boathouse’ theme-pub a couple of miles downriver - has quietly been taken over by chef Ben Hall and his lovely, rather sexy wife, Rosy. If you like real Italian and Spanish inspired cooking, with honest, super-fresh local ingredients, decent proportions, delicious wines, and an unpretentious, relaxed atmosphere, then this is the get-away-from-it-all destination for you.
Hidden away behind some red brick terraces and bordering the Avon river, you have to go through elaborate iron gates, a parking ‘yard’, and traverse a hidden leafy little bridge to discover the entrance.
Now, it is above a real boathouse. It is plain and simple. But the place is spotless, with crisp white linen, huge stainless steel cutlery, generous glasses and lots of freshly scrubbed wood. Most of my visitors to Bath are not wanting swanky decor anyway. They want - need, in fact - to get away from all that. Slow down a bit. Fall in love again.
I can’t think of anywhere more romantic to eat in Bath.
You could laze away an entire afternoon or candle-lit evening on their creaky verandah watching the boats go by.
And getting there? If you can’t manage the 5 minute stroll from the City centre, hop on the boat tour that departs upstream from Pulteney Bridge and they will drop you off at the restaurant a minute later for FREE, if you ask them nicely.
PS. Stuff: when you do get there, order the ravioli. All the pasta is handmade in the morning on their wooden-rollered-pasta-machine. Knowledge: The wooden rollers give the pasta a ‘grain’ that holds the delicious sauces, unlike smooth metal rollers.
The Bathwick Boatman Restaurant
Forester Road, Bathwick, Bath, BA2 2QE
tel:01225 428844
