Logo embossed luxury brand bags had monopolised the must-have accessory market for decades. The interlocking alphabets, the embosses emblems... you know the one's I'm talking about but am refraining from listing (they do advertise with us - bless them!). Somehow, out of the blue, Anya Hindmarch’s trademark bags quietly became the mother of all must-have trinkets over the last four years.
Adding to the sky-high list of collector’s items, now there’s the little amenities kit Hindmarch designed for British Airways. Who would have thought a case holding toothpaste, lip balm and toiletries would be the hottest cake in a designer oven? P Ramakrishnan was in conversation with a designer dream. And yes, its an exclusive chat.
It's funny that in a row of cookie cutter houses in the heart of London resides one of England’s most celebrated and unique designers who single-handedly created a mini-revolution with her brilliant 'Be a Bag' idea. Customised bags with personal pictures, each exclusive to its owner, was the rage in 2001 – and continues to be that one little idea that could!
Catapulting her to the fashion world orbit, Hindmarch has morphed from a surname to the most identifiable emblem that dots 30 stores around the planet, Hong Kong included.
When British Airways asked her to come up with a design and concept for the amenities kit for their first-class passengers, she didn’t just create one device for all flights, for every flier. With its inimitable style, size and shape, the disparate bags are yet again a must-have item and people are in fact trying to collect every kind, of every design this working mom-of-five has created over the years!
With some dubious sales on eBay (with figures escalating weekly!), urgent requests and pleas on ground staff at BA, does she know what she’s gone and created? When told, a laughter erupts and says, “It was a crazy but great idea that I’m glad worked.”
As we chat in the mezzanine floor of her plush living room, decorated with incredible black and white pictures of her bountiful and beautiful family,
Hindmarch seems to be juggling home and hearth with ease.
In the fastest interview conducted on record for this magazine, the multi-tasker/juggler, with hands in multiple-pies spills her design secrets. Well, some of them...
“BA approached me as they were looking for someone to come up with an idea for an amenities kit… because... well, because I was British and I do bags!” she reasons, a gush of words that spill our very rapidly on tape.
She neatly sets aside the fact that she had won, that same year, the Best British Accessories Designer of the Year award by the British Fashion Council. Coincidence? Hardly.
“They approached me, they were looking for someone to design something different. Actually, it was a really fun project. Not only was it designing a bag, but also designing the concept of the idea, which is that it changes regularly by design and I knew what I wanted to put in flights, what I didn’t want. I was very clear about it because, when you’re on a plane, you’re out of control, you can’t really have all the things you want so its nice to have really nice things, have the sort of things you would have at home, really good quality items that would enhance the travel experience.”
As the signature airline and designer accessory is categorically a collector’s item, we wonder if her cupboards house each of her own creations. With a smile, she says, “I do have one of each in cupboards, but its annoying because my children pilfer from them so I don’t have the complete bags with everything in it, but one of each design!”
Did you have any idea that your bags, the Be a Bag concept in particular, would become such a rage from New York to New Delhi? Visible in Central London, to Central, Hong Kong?
“It was one of those crazy ideas that worked, and I’m really glad it did because there’s a charitable element with it (Be A Bag has raised money for more than twenty charities around the world). Privatisation is key, I love things that are just mine. If you have something that’s specially made just for you, then it feels like real luxury.”
“We’re translating that to another concept where you, in a bag, you have inside the bag a message in your own handwriting that’s sewn into the leather, like a secret message inside. We’ve had children write a lot of really fun texts and messages and drawings. And on the box you have your name written on it. I think there’s always something about exclusivity, personalised things that will have a market. No, I didn’t quite predict the extent of it but I knew when I saw them, that this would be something I’d want – so why wouldn’t others?”
With five kids, a cottage industry that’s now considerably more than a “cottage”, with, in addition to the travel kits, there are shoes, the hand embroidered kaftans, bikinis and baskets for mothers and daughters… How she finds time to eat, sleep and drink seems dubious. Magic potions and sorcery?
“Well, its about great help and great team around you. Lots of people are working around who need me," she says with a smile and a polite nod towards her assistant who seems to stand guard against the media onslaught from Hong Kong as we take up a lot of room in her plush home. "Hopefully, they need me. Nothing like five children at home to make it seem like you're the least important person in the room!”
She laughs as her assistants [plural!] and kids seem to be bodies in constant rest and motion throughout the multi-floored home.
“You’ve got to write lists and be organised and there’s time management and its hard work. And you have to have a little bit of humour about it, because when you have all that much going on, you can’t be a perfectionist about every aspect of every single thing. My work place is just five minutes away so either I’m there or here, and devote myself to those places.”
When you sit at your drawing board or while making those copious lists and ideas, who are you designing things for?
“I design for women who are quite similar to me, they might work, they might have children, they might travel a lot. There are different pressures and pleasures. But I do think, that’s sort of a woman’s life; you handle it.”
There is a fashion flock mentality in certain circles where when one person gets something, everyone in that circle must get the same. Blindly following trends. That’s completely antithetical to her concept she says, “I think there’s nothing worse than a woman that’s head to toe in a look, and that’s really annoying. When everyone’s the same, has the same things. And it’s a bit less than special. Hong Kong women dress so well and they always look amazing and I think they are smart dressers unlike other countries where they might be a little less sophisticated. Adhering to fickle trends and not creating their own statements.”
“The fashion market in Hong Kong, well, the way I’ve seen it is that they are generally more slight women so a great big bag perhaps wouldn’t do as well there. There’s that world-traveled elegance to the women in Hong Kong and they’re always immaculately put together. English girls are a bit more flea market and unpolished shoes and that retro look... Hong Kong girls are more polished. If you can say that Hong Kong girls aren’t funky, I suppose one can turn around and say the English girls can be a bit dirty!”
Though one can recognise an original Hindmarch a mile away, the brand itself is subtle, devoid of “bling” and loud logos and in-your-face marketing.
“I don’t think I’d want something that had a massive statement on it. I think branding is important and even I might see the value in something, a particular brand and I might be attracted to it but something that’s too obvious for me would be horrible. We’re not an over advertised brand.”
Does the nefarious head of the fake industry bother her?
“Its frustrating obviously when people copy but I think its inevitable," she says in that ever pragmatic English accent. "But we change our brand and design every six months. More frequently on some items so it doesn’t affect our business as much but its annoying because copying is so much easier than the original work I do. And you get bored of the design if you see it everywhere, if the fakes are floating all around you, instead of the actual bag that you’ve worked on - that is frustrating.”
As we make our way down a narrow flight of stairs, she tells us about her impending trip to Hong Kong for a shop opening at IFC, not far from Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong. As we stand outside and look up at a clear-blue sky, I ask one final question. Tell us about your favourite things about London.
“Well, my least favourite would be the rain. I can say that quickly. But we have been enjoying a spell of grand weather," she says, squinting her eye at the sun. "My most favourite thing about London is that its an incredibly cosmopolitan city. You can do anything, eat anything, meet anyone, its multi-racial, huge and diverse and it’s a great city. I just love it, I love the people, you have the green as well as the big city feel."
"I love New York but I miss the green of London and really, there’s nothing quite like home.”
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Table of Contents:
Features Editor P.Ramakrishnan was invited to the private confines of designer Anya Hindmarch's home one sultry afternoon in London. For this special edition of the magazine - Best of British - he chats with the working oh-so-glamorous mum and designer.
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