You can keep your Hermès Birkins and suchlike - Susannah Hunter makes my favourite bags in the world, ever, bar nothing and nobody and no one. I first came across them in The Cross five or six years ago - there was a woman carrying one and I practically attacked her to ask her where it was from; not to sound completely mental or anything, but my breathing quickened so that I was pretty much PANTING WITH DESIRE. Over a bag. Yes, I know. But the bags are unbelievably sumptuous - the leather is like butter, the colours are jewel-like, the insides are thick velvet, the craftsmanship is impeccable and the appliquéd flowers are amazingly beautiful; plus there isn't an iota of bling or logo grossness.
The bags - they come in lots of different shapes and sizes but are all squishy - are put together with a painterly eye, especially when it comes to colour, which isn't very surprising as Susannah comes from a family of artists. The bummer is, they're not cheap. At all. Like, really not *sad face*. But *perks up* it's nearly Christmas. And they last forever and never date - I still get stopped and interrogated about my very first purchase from her. And they are made by hand, in the atelier behind the shop in Rugby Street, Bloomsbury, by a charming bunch of women who are properly paid and looked after. Look: it's the anti-sweatshop:
As well as the existing shop at 7 Rugby Street, WC1, a second shop is opening next month at 19 Connaught Street, W2; it'll stock leather-bound books and things like travel-card holders as well as the lovely bags (there's also a bespoke
furniture range). The online shop is
here. If you can't afford a bag, nip into the shop and buy a keyring: it may be small but it'll be so beautiful that it'll make you happy every time you see it.
