London Craft Week continues to celebrate the best of British craftsmanship and with open access to all, it is an opportunity for brands to engage with consumers in an open dialogue around the making of their products.

I only had a few hours on Wednesday 3rd May, but managed to get around a couple of events which was well worth the dash across town.

Harrison, an apprentice Mulberry bag maker, was whisked up from the Somerset factory into the Bond Street store, explained how he and his brother have worked for Mulberry since they left school. He skilfully demonstrated how a bag is made with simple tools laid out on a table, beside an array of different leathers used to make their iconic bags. In reality there is much more of a production line in Somerset, but for the consumer to get up close and personal with a maker, really seals the understanding of the care and skill required to create these products.

Moving swiftly on to Saville Row to catch a taster of the Jimmy Beaumont capsule collection provided by many of the great tailors, including Anderson and Shepherd and newest to the Street, (or rather round the corner) Dashing Tweed. Guy kindly provided the photos taken at the Beaumont Hotel.

From there I headed across to the Hussein Chalayan Store only to find out that his event had been cancelled. Fortunately, I managed at the last minute to gain entry to the Anya Hindmarch talk, led by Caroline Issa of Tank Magazine during which Anya spoke with passion about her life’s work and how she has built her business based in London. The focus was on her “Bespoke” offering with great anecdotes around how customers embody such personal messages within her bespoke leather products. There will be more on this in the next post.

As part of a small audience of 30 in the store, it was wonderful to have direct access to such creative individuals who are masters in design and who speak with such passion about their journey and the skills required to manufacture within the UK.