Mulberry Takes On The Tote

Tote bags have long provided a portable canvas for art masterpiece lookalikes. But leave it to Mulberry to consign wan reproductions to museum gift shops and make the bags themselves into works of art worthy of display in its New Bond Street flagship store windows. By teaming up with London’s tastemaker FRED gallery, Mulberry has, er, bagged artists Peter Jones (pictured), Kate Davis, Simon English, and Paul Hosking for exclusive limited-edition totes. English, whose saucy, pink-patterned “Maxim-meow” bag will be showcased at Mulberry from today, designed his tote as a an homage to Daphne du Maurier’s gothic romance Rebecca. “I always thought of Mulberry as being synonymous with the nautical headscarves sported in the shires of my youth,” he confessed. “I am clearly wrong. The Mulberry of today is very different.” And thanks to Mulberry and FRED, so is the tote.

—Ana Finel Honigman
Photo: Courtesy of Mulberry

The New [Stone] Mulberry Bayswater Tote

Latest news!!

If you haven't yet owned a Mulberry Bayswater Tote - whether it's because you've been saving up for it or the color's not right.. we've good news for you!

The iconic Bayswater is now made available to you in their new color - Stone! And what's more, you'll find it much more affordable!

Mulberry Bayswater Tote $995.00

Lined in suede, you'll find the stoned colored polished goatskin Bayswater comes with a postman's lock (as with other Bayswater Totes) protective feed and belt straps.

For more info on the Mulberry Bayswater Tote, check out our previous post here.

Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry

Brit brand Mulberry seems to be doing a lot of collaborations these days. Last year, the brand collaborated with Brit designer, Giles Deacon for the 'Giles for Mulberry' Collection. This Fall/Winter Season, Mulberry has collaborated with an Artist, Julie Verhoeven (who collabrated with Louis Vuitton in 2003) to create this Special Artist Edition 'Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry Bag'. Only made in limited quantities, this bag can be considered as a Limited Edition.


Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry Quilted shopper


Back View

Though a little Chanel-esque in more ways than one, (in terms of the quilted look and the chain shoulder strap) the artist illustrated appliqué by Verhoeven reminds me a little of Chanel's fun, funky and colourful Cruise Collections of seasons' past. A little Chanel-esque it may be, but Bagaholic Babe still adores this bag nonetheless. It's very me. Lol. This Quilted fabric shopper has a zippered top and also comes with the ringpull keyring charm attached. Get this Verhoeven for Mulberry Shopper for £580.43 via Net-a-Porter.

For those of you in Malaysia who are interested in this bag, it's available at the Mulberry Boutique ( Call 03-21448001) at the StarHill Shopping Gallery in Bukit Bintang. The Limited Edition Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry T-shirt can also be found at the StarHill Mulberry Boutique.

For more info on the artist Julie Verhoeven and the other brands she has collaborated with in the past, Click Here!

Splurge of the Week!

Mulberry Ostrich Bayswater bag


Today's Splurge features the Bayswater bag in Ostrich by Mulberry. A very deep purple, this bag reminds me of the grape flavored 'Sugus' (chewy dragee candies) I used to munch on as a kid. The Bayswater comes with gold hardware, two top handles, hidden buckles on the sides for capacity adjustment, a zipped and open pouch on the inside and a padlock tag attached to it.



Extremely classy, this item now made available from Net-A-Porter for the price of $3,995.00.

An Arty Endeavour

BRITISH brand Mulberry definitely has a thing for collaborations.


The quirky print from Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry.


Last season, the brand teamed up with British designer Giles Deacon for a capsule collection that saw the normally classic label walking on the wild side with lots of punk styles. This season, British eccentricity comes into play through a collaboration with artist and designer Julie Verhoeven.




Verhoeven had a successful collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2003, and her recent commissions include collaborations with beauty brand Lancome and fashion brands Topshop and Sketch, as well as music projects with Primal Scream and Fischerspooner.

Famed for her collage of figure drawings which have a quirky, erotic style, this time round Verhoeven has used her signature designs and turned them into print designs for Mulberry. The print is an interesting and striking collage of flowers, faces and graphics in pink, rose and white on a black background.

The collection will make its first appearance on Sept 15 at London Fashion Week.

In an exclusive email interview with StarMag, Verhoeven says she has known former creative director of Mulberry Stuart Vevers for years and was thrilled when he asked her to collaborate.

“Stuart was keen for the collection to be bold and a touch naughty. I played with Expressionism and Surrealism in iconography and application with nonsensical elements thrown in.”

The collection comprises a dress, bag, key ring, T-shirt and scarf and Verhoeven says the core of the collection is the English Rose who is “steamed in tradition but with a thorny stem.”

Verhoeven, who says she is inspired by human behaviour and character, pop music and colour, would love to come out with her own accessories collection and wouldn’t mind doing more collaborations with other brands in the future.


Only the bag from the Julie Verhoeven for Mulberry Collection is available at the Mulberry boutique at Starhill Gallery, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. The bag is priced at RM4,899 and the T-shirt at RM499.


By DZIREENA MAHADZIR
The Star Newspaper - An Arty Endeavour
Sunday, September 9, 2007

Presenting: Style.com's Hottest Bag Picks from Fall/Winter 2007

Here's Style.com's Hottest Bag Picks from the designers' Fall/Winter 2007 Collections



























(Images from Style.com)

More from Mulberry for Giles Deacon Collection

If you are a regular reader, you'll remember that I posted about the Mulberry for Giles Deacon Collection awhile back. Here are more goodies from the Mulberry for Giles Deacon Collection...



Mulberry for Giles Deacon Small Drawstring Hobo and Mace Bag Charm

Whether when you're walking to your car alone in a dark carpark, or arming yourself should snatch theft occur, The Mace Bag Charm is a perfect self-defense weapon (besides Pepper spray of course). Just hold it in your palm and you have yourself armed! Since the studs and spikes on the Nappa leather body is made of metal, you can actually poke someone's eyes out with them. If you wanna get this, you gotta be patient though, for it isn't available yet. If you're not a fan of whites, it's also available in Black for £195 via Mulberry Online or your nearest Mulberry Boutique very soon.

The Small Drawstring Hobo, is in Bagaholic Babe's opinion, THE best bag from the Mulberry for Giles Deacon Collection so far. I mentioned in my earlier post that this collection is a tad too dominatrix-looking for me, but I guess if I had to choose, I'd probably pick this one. Made of White Patent leather (again, white is THE colour for Spring-Summer 2007), stud buckle closure and gold hardware and tassel details, it retails for £795, and will be available soon via the Mulberry Website .

Click Here to view the other Mulberry Bag from the Mulberry for Giles COllection

For those of you Malaysians out there who are interested, the Mulberry Boutique at StarHill Gallery already has the Mulberry for Giles Collection, but I'm not sure if they're gonna bring in the complete collection.

Mulberry for Giles Deacon Collection

Mulberry for Giles Black Patent Leather Shopper

One of the hottest accessories collaborations of the season, is Mulberry for Giles Deacon (a groovy young designer). Mulberry for Giles is a 10 piece collection, featuring distinctive designs...not the usual functional designs that Mulberry is known for. How different? Mulberry steps out of their comfort zone, using embellishments for this collection - something they have never done before. I'm pretty good at identifying the brand of the bags by just looking at it, but for this one, I was surprised that it was a Mulberry creation. There is an abundance of chunky zips and Gold and silver studding and hardware accent the Patent Leather and Washed Lambskin bags of this collection - a first for the brand that is usually known for its simplicity and functional, minimalist looks when it comes to design. As Stuart Vevers, creative director of Mulberry says" The collaboration was so good as it allowed us to both move outside our comfort zone".

However, it's A little too much of a bad-ass girl, wild child, dominatrix and S&M fusion for Bagaholic Babe though.

For those of you in Malaysia, you can Get this star-studded bag at Mulberry boutique at G2A, Indulge Floor, Star Hill Gallery. Prices for this Mulberry for Giles Deacon collection start at RM6000+

'IT Bag' Timeline

The bags of the season

Early 1990s - Prada's nylon knapsack
With its plain style and designer label placed on the outside, the nylon knapsack let people who thought they were too cool to show off to - show off.

Late 90s - Fendi's Baguette bag
Too small, too expensive, too flash by half, the baguette was the inevitable bag of 1999, warning us all of the bling-bling apocalypse to come.

2000 - Christian Dior's Saddle bag
Shamelessly ritzier sorts paid out hundreds of pounds to wear a saddle on their backs. Yes, a saddle. An ironic homage to Helmut Newton or the nadir of misogyny as fashion? The jury is still out.

2001 - Balenciaga's Lariat bag
Small and simple, and with an appeal utterly incomprehensible to anyone not obsessed with fashion, this bag became a victim of its own success when the Wags adopted it.

2004 - Mulberry's Roxy bag
The bag that made the once staid fashion label into one of Britain's trendiest and most successful designer brands.

2005 - Chloe's Paddington bag
It has got a pointless padlock that weighs more than a small dog and it doesn't shut properly. None the less, this became the object of desire for fashion-obsessed twentysomethings around the world.

2006 - Marc Jacobs' Stam bag
Named after model Jessica Stam, with its quilted leather and chain strap this bag bore more than a few resemblances to styles one generally associates with Chanel.

2007 - Marc Jacobs' Sonic Shopper
Another guaranteed winner. It's cute, it's pretty, it's covered with crystals. That it will cost more than £4,000 is a downside negated by the fact that it will be very easy for the high street to copy.



---Article by Hadley Freeman, Guardian Unlimited UK