If you’re in the market for a handbag, you just might want to check out up and coming entrepreneur Katy Bell. Bell makes her “upcycled” bags out of materials like old coffee bean sacks and damaged boat sails. A graduate in textiles from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, she won an order with the London department store Liberty after attending an open day there a number of years ago.
Her firm, Lost Property of London, is run from a studio in Islington, North London. She sells her range on her website and also to Fortnum & Mason department stores.
When she recently won the order for 250 bags at Liberty, she said, “I was thrilled, but panicked about how to fund it. Luckily, my bank agreed an overdraft and I roped in friends and family to meet the order.”
Her bags are all made in the UK with the manufacturing in North London. As spokeswoman Emma Jones said, “What we are finding is that businesses which are building an online brand have found a short-term burst in bricks and mortar is an attractive proposition.”