2020 was not a good year for handbags. During the pandemic, they were one of the hardest hit categories with sales falling 19 per cent, according to Euromonitor International.
But British designer Anya Hindmarch, purveyor of the cult I Am Not A Plastic Bag totes, appears to have taken the challenges of the pandemic in her stride. So much so in fact that she’s opening a first of its kind, five-store retail concept in May, which she’s calling The Village.
The Village will be a quintet of neighbouring Anya Hindmarch stores which will reside on Pont Street in Belgravia, the original home of the brand. Included in the five-store line-up will be The Anya Café, The Village Hall – an evolving concept space which will launch with a hair salon, The Plastic Store - the home of the brand’s I Am Not a Plastic Bag totes, The Labelled Store and The Bespoke Store, which will offer personalisation.
“I feel that the next ten years are going to be about ‘localisation’ not ‘globalisation’ and it feels so right now to realise my dream of The Village,” says Hindmarch.
Last year, Hindmarch reissued her sell-out I Am Not a Plastic Bag collection, thirteen years after its initial launch. The designer has reimagined the totes, which sold out immediately upon their launch in 2007, in a material crafted from recycled plastic bottles and coated with recycled plastic windshields.
News of The Village comes after Hindmarch returned to her namesake brand as chief executive and creative director last year in a deal to buy back half of the business when the brand was sold to the Marandi family, which also owns The Conran Shop and has invested in Emilia Wickstead.
Hindmarch founded her business when she was 18, selling Italian leather duffel bags to friends, and opened her first store on Pont Street in 1996. At one point in 2017, Hindmarch had 46 stores but by 2019 had closed all but 5 of them, instead opting to prioritise online sales.
The Village will open on May 17, 2021.
