Designer’s Diary

Currently out of stock at Selfridges

August 2, 2008 – 3:21 pm

Apologies to those of you looking for us at Selfridges over the last couple of weeks…

We are expecting to be delivering a new order in September. Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, why not order online with us here? Not only do we offer FREE* 24 hour delivery and FREE* returns, we also arrange collection from your address so you don’t have to do a thing should you decide it’s not for you… (*We happily deliver overseas, but a postage charge is applicable and we don’t cover postage costs on returns.)

If you’d like to ask any questions, or know more about our stockists, please contact us at service@bowndesigns.com, or telephone me on 01458 834 812.

Posted in General on August 2, 2008 • Permalink • Comments (0)

Our first stockist - Selfridges

January 15, 2008 – 11:23 am

Ever since we launched the business online last year I have been asked “When can we see Bown in London?”

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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…

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Posted in General on January 15, 2008 • Permalink • Comments (0)

Want to change gear in 2008? Use a clutch

December 17, 2007 – 5:05 pm

0-9.jpg0-6.jpg0-3.jpgTipped 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.

Posted in General on December 17, 2007 • Permalink • Comments Off

Visiting the Top Brass in Florence

December 14, 2007 – 12:21 am

dsc00093.jpgDan 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.

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Posted in Stuff & Knowledge on December 14, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)

Spirit of Fun

November 13, 2007 – 4:56 pm

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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.

Posted in General on November 13, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)

Bown at House & Garden “Spirit of Christmas” Fair

October 15, 2007 – 12:27 pm

cover.jpgWe are very excited to be showing our collection at the Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia, London, from Wednesday 7th to Sunday 11th November.

With over 600 exhibitors hand picked by Conde Nast House & Garden magazine, the fair covers everything from food, wine, gifts, toys, furnishings, decorations and luxury items… definitely not to be missed!

We would love you to come along and meet us… why not bring a friend or two?

And if there’s something you fancy but don’t want to carry it home, our free courier service applies to any purchases made at the Fair.

You can find us at stand E11 (not far from Leith’s Restaurant).

Click here to pre-book entry tickets, or buy them at the door.

Posted in General on October 15, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)

What is “vegetable” tanning, exactly?

October 15, 2007 – 10:48 am

tan-tote.jpgDan 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

  • It has the most amazing look, touch and smell.
  • It is 100% natural.
  • It gives the leather a rich depth of colour.
  • Each hide has its unique character enhanced, that is otherwise eliminated with other methods.
  • And, unlike chrome-tanned leathers, it ages beautifully.
Posted in Stuff & Knowledge on October 15, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)

What’s brewing?

October 15, 2007 – 10:19 am

dan.jpgI’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).

Posted in General on October 15, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)

Romance on the Riviera

June 26, 2007 – 12:38 am

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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.img_2120.jpg

The Bathwick Boatman Restaurant

Forester Road, Bathwick, Bath, BA2 2QE

tel:01225 428844

 
   
   
Posted in Bath Unplugged on June 26, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (2)

A hand-stitch in time… getting Autumn’s collection into work

June 21, 2007 – 12:12 pm

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Me hand-stitching with two needles, linen thread and veg-tanned leather…

… and not forgetting G, helping me out here with a men’s attache design…

img_2029.jpgI’ve just had another ‘fix’ at Val and Neil’s leather workshops up the road in Tetbury.

I’ve been working on some bag designs to go into my SS08 collection and, with the factory so busy making the new Autumn collection, I’m finding it more timely to hand-make these samples myself.

And so incredibly rewarding…
Val and Neil were very kind about my stitching, which is apparently much improved since I first took up the needles (you use two simultaneously) a couple of years ago. They’ll make a master-craftswoman of me yet.

And I’ve got muscles in my hands I never knew I had… you didn’t think those popping veins were anything to do with age, did you?

Next week I’m off to Seville and Florence to review what’s in work there and make final changes.

I love this time of year!

If you’d like to be updated when the new collection arrives on-line, please subscribe to my news updates.

Posted in General on June 21, 2007 • Permalink • Comments (0)