I got into designing handbags by accident, quite literally. I had left my job at a creative visual arts company in London to do a ski-season for 6 months to decide what avenue I wanted to develop in my career. After one month of working in Val d’Isere, I was back in England, unable to walk and housebound, nursing a knee construction. With all this time on my hands and unable to go anywhere I started to make handbags with my mother's old sewing machine and all the old materials I could found lying around the house. I found I absolutely loved it and would spend my time sewing sequins and gluing studs onto fabric developing new ways of making different bags. The enthusiastic response I got from my creations from friends and the public was totally unexpected, but it gave me the encouragement and belief that I could transform this passion into a business. I wrote to Lulu Guinness, a well known English handbag designer and explained that I was looking for a manufacturer and she kindly put me in touch with the company she used in the UK and since then I have not looked back. Through this wonderfully qualified team of handbag craftsmen I have learnt so much about handbag design and all its different processes. It is a wonderful experience to see your design go from paper to the real thing and to work alongside the craftsmen who make this happen. I can’t deny that it has always been easy, as it has taken a lot of trial and error on many designs, to get the end product right. The main factor that I have learnt through this is that you have to be meticulous in every part of production to get the design as you intended. Quality control is of critical importance, especially now that I have a manufacturer in London and now also in Istanbul for the more heavy-duty leather items.

I only use the finest quality materials for my bags which range from funky printed pony hair to snakeskin finished leathers and bright colored suede. I am very particular about the colors that I use for my designs, I always want them to stand out and normally do not use materials or color combinations that just blend in. I find searching for new fabrics one of the most exciting parts of the business and I am always collecting different swatches and putting different colors and materials together, imagining what new creations I can come up with. I am fairly meticulous about detail, and always like to have a special trim, or to use a bright thread or a funky lining, to give the bag that added individual Arm Candy touch.

I try and keep Arm Candy to small runs of production, to keep the designs exclusive for our customers. Currently there is so much competition in the handbag world, I believe Arm Candy has to keep offering unique designs that are of the highest quality, that are not over priced and keep to their funky but timeless style that catch the onlookers eye. ARM CANDY Bags appeal to chic women who know that the perfect bag will complete their effortless but ingenious look. I don’t believe in following fashion trends as this changes so quickly and a bag should be designed to last for years and still look great.

There have many problems during the development of Arm Candy, especially through manufacturing problems and quality control, but probably the biggest nightmare was when Kate Winslet had one of my first bags that I actually made. She was out shopping in New York with it and the handle came unattached! Hideous!! I did however find out she liked it so much that she sewed the handle back on, but embarrassing all the same. As soon as I had a manufacturer on board, I had a new one made up and sent it to her with an apology note.

I believe that my greatest achievement is that even through all the struggles that you face trying to run your own company, with the amount of things that go wrong and the hard work and dedication it takes to get that finished product right and to struggle against the competition, that you still keep on going. When you hear reports back from customers of how much they love their Arm Candy bag and how it always gets commented on, it does literally brighten up your day and makes you feel proud, that somebody who you don’t know has spent money on something that you have created. Having a vision of a design in your mind to then seeing it on somebody’s shoulder or in a shop window is a wonderful thing. Hearing positive feedback gives you the energy and drive to keep creating new designs that put your individual mark in the handbag world.