Party bags: British accessories designer Sophie Hulme on her fun but functional evening bag collection

Sophie Hulme’s after-dark arm candy is taking London’s social scene by storm. Karen Dacre meets the British designer  
Karen Dacre6 December 2016

No one cracks a dress code like a Londoner. A metropolitan elite of partygoers, we have the confidence required to team our slip dresses with our Stan Smiths and understand that black tie need not mean buttoning up in an actual penguin suit.

However, the matter of what to carry with our perfect party ensembles has long been a stumbling block. Notably because the evening bag at its most traditional is an outmoded concept.

London-based designer Sophie Hulme has a plan to change all that and accordingly is closing 2016 with the launch of a range of party bags which are well on their way to becoming red- carpet regulars. “Evening bags can be a bit twee,” admits Hulme when we meet in her Islington studio, “my take on it is a bit tougher, it’s about fun.”

The name behind the most exciting home-grown bag label in the capital, north London born and bred Hulme offers quality designs with amiable price tags that have won favour among the style brigade.

Accessories designer Sophie Hulme 
Tereza Cervenova

Her after-dark vision sees her signature box bag recast in a host of new styles, including glitter-infused Plexiglas and rainbow stripes finished with a substantial chain strap. The collection, which launched last week in Hulme’s newly opened shop-in-a-shop in Harrods, continues her mission to create accessories that speak to all sorts of women leading all sorts of lives. “The bags fall into the evening wear category because they are not leather, but this isn’t about prescribed use,” says Hulme, “it’s the real woman’s take.”

With this in mind I’m not surprised to hear that the inspiration for the collection was a handbag Hulme designed for her bridesmaids to wear to her wedding. “My sister was like: ‘Oh, I love it, I’m hands-free when I dance’,” she says.

Glitter pink Compton evening envelope clutch

It is this sense of fun fused with practicality that has come to define Hulme’s brand. Her signature products include an oversized box bag that has become a wish-list item for busy working women across the capital and a series of gold charms - inspired by Hulme’s obsession with Victorian chatelaines - which includes everything from gold-plated cocktail stirrers to chip forks.

For Hulme, these thoughtful flourishes are all part of a carefully thought through design philosophy in which each detail, however playful, has a clear-cut function. “I love thinking about what’s useful and working from there,” she says.

To create the perfect bag Hulme and her team create everything out of cardboard before road-testing the style. “You have to feel it and try it out. You put the stuff in, you play with it. It’s incredibly arrogant to design things that don’t work. I take huge pride in seeing people use my bags. That’s why feedback from the team is so important,” she says.

It is Hulme’s determination to avoid designing for design’s sake that has made her label a success story. A womenswear graduate of Kingston University, the designer set out in business with a plan to let the products speak for themselves: “This isn’t a personality brand. At the heart of what we do there has to be something people really want to buy.”

Rainbow Compton evening envelope clutch, £1,095

As a result, craftsmanship is a real focus for Hulme. As is her role, or lack of it, in the wider fashion community. “I didn’t grow up in a fashion set. I wasn’t around other young brands and designers,” she says.

While she is recognised among the fashion community, most notably with a fashion award which she won in 2012, Hulme remains relatively separate from its inner web. This has proved her secret weapon. “We approach the brand and the product as a design company rather than a fashion company. I never looked at my fashion contemporaries in that manner.” For the bags themselves, Hulme’s determination to plough her own path means her style is a little unconventional. She learned her craft at the side of Mr Patel - an East End leather worker and “an unbelievable guy”.

“The thing about not having a formal education in handbags is that my bag was unlined with a heavy saddle. The approach to how it was made was really quite unusual. That was a result of thinking of something as an object, rather than ‘we normally do this so let’s do this’. That allowed me to be much more innovative. I was learning on the job.”

It also means she offers the bags at a price she is comfortable with instead of being dictated to by what’s going on elsewhere in the market.

“We are a disruptor because we are luxury driven at a contemporary price point. We are driven by quality. There’s a sweet spot - you use all the best materials you can but still do it at a great price. It’s not about the label. People justify a price because of a name. We couldn’t charge the same as those brands. People want the thing - the name secondary. For me that’s a massive personal goal. I want people to want what I’ve created because they are great things.”

Hulme’s shop-in-a-shop in Harrods 
Gilbert McCarragher

As well as catching the eye of a host of accessories junkies, whose investment in the brand has allowed the company to grow into an office packed with 40 employees, the brand has also found favour in Harrods, which is home to her first store.

Designed by her husband Edward Swift, an architect, the space is something of a career high for Hulme: “When you first see your products in somewhere like that it hits you like a bus,” she says.

It’s also affecting Christmas shoppers who have figured out that Hulme’s new evening wear options, some of which have price tags as low as £250, are worth throwing a party for.

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