Get ready, Manila! Stores Specialists, Inc., the leading specialty retailer in the Philippines, brings British premium handbag and accessories brand, Radley, to the country.
Radley was founded in 1998 in the heart of London by Lowell Harder; and back then, Lowell had just started her journey into handbags, setting up a business selling leather goods at London’s infamous Camden Lock market in the early 1980’s – back in the days when it was a breeding ground for creative young entrepreneurs with fledgling businesses.
Over the following years, Lowell built strong relationships with her leather manufacturers and with sheer determination learnt her trade, absorbing everything she could about crafting leather, tanning and authentic leather techniques. Driven by a passion for color, carefully considered design and a strong belief that a bag only truly works when it is beautiful both inside and out, she refined her product and outgrew the confines of the market and went on to launch Radley in 1998, as a premium handbag brand based on three key principles: Beauty, Function and Integrity.
In its first year, a leading UK department store tried the collection in a few of its top stores, they sold out almost immediately. In a sea of navy, brown and black shoulder bags, Radley was an oasis of color and structured shape, the uniqueness and confidence of this new brand saw the British consumer take Radley to its hearts.
In 2000, Lowell had a chance encounter with young woman dressed all in black except for a bright red hat and socks, proudly marching alongside her was a little black Scottie dog with a bright red collar. Lowell loved this quirky little character and designed a little black Scottie dog tag to add to her latest bag collection, in her words ‘he adds a smile to the outside of our bags’. Very quickly, this little idea became a big success and the Scottie went on to become a much loved and internationally recognized symbol of the Radley brand.
The first Radley store opened in 2005 on London’s Kings Road, fast forward to the present day and the company has a portfolio of 33 UK stores, e-commerce site radley.co.uk (shipping to 47 countries), stockists nationwide including John Lewis and House of Fraser and a growing international business, key markets include: Germany, Japan and Taiwan.
Radley still operates from a bustling headquarters in its birthplace of London, with a growing team of dedicated in-house designers whose inspirations are deeply rooted in British culture and today has evolved into a British icon of affordable luxury.
In Lowell’s words, she summarizes Radley, “We blend creative design, quality materials and immaculate craftsmanship. We value being colorful, surprising and real to create luxurious handbags and purses that women can’t help falling in love with and will never make a bag that we don’t feel passionate about. Our design approach is straight forward. It’s about putting women’s needs first, achieving the perfect union of beauty on the outside and function on the inside. That’s intelligent design. That’s Radley.”
This is a press release from Radley.
