Mulberry - oh how we love thee

God how we love this brand! Mulberry has hit the press in the last week with story after story, detailing just how good this company does. They’ve just bagged Guillion, Herme’s chief executive. They’ve created the Alexa bag which over the last year has propelled Mulberry’s sales up 62%. Growth in the first half of September was the same as in the entire year to March 2010. Internationally, sales more than doubled (driven by demand from Asia) and profits in the first half rose 231 per cent (£15.6 million, up from £4.7 million in Q1+Q2 2010). Despite the fact that most people are feeling (and being) very gloomy about the market, Mulberry is see quite the opposite, especially in China and Brazil (where the European debt crisis hasn’t affected Mulberry’s sales). And they've just recievd a £2.5 million grant from the government to help them fund a new factory in Somerset which will create 300 new jobs!

Founded: 1971
Who: A British company who’s backbone is an extensive line of luxury fashion bags. In addition to leather goods, Mulberry’s range includes womenswear, accessories and footwear.
Where: originally from rural Somerset England
Creative Director: The infamous Emma Hill who joined in 2008
Mulberry’s orginal products: chockers and belts (the bags of the 1970s and 80s), quilted fishing bags, poacher bags and jackets inspired by country pursuits
The Bayswater: the start of the 21st century saw the birth of this style icon
Handbags and Accessories: Make up 77% of Mulberry’s sales
Ready-to-wear clothing: category’s sales are growing the fastest (and we understand why, we love those mulberry scarves)
Factory: Has defeated the laws of globalisation. Their manufacturing is based in The Rookery in Somerset (it’s one of the last of its kind in the UK). Everyone is a local craftsman and in 2006 they launched a training scheme for eight young apprentices to qualify in leather goods manufacturing every year. Mulbs has just received a government grant of £2.5million to open a new factory in the same area, creating 300 jobs!
Total UK stores: 44 (26 department shop-in-shop and 18 individual stores)
Total International stores: 48 (18 department shop-in-shop and 30 individual stores)

The Hunter Welly Boot

The consortium that manages the Hunter Boot has sold a majority stake to American private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners, taking funding state side to help its push into the lucrative Chinese market. The simple welly has morphed from a farmers commodity foot wear into a cool luxury boot at £75-£225 a pair. As a brand the Hunter boot is British, premium and should, theoretically, be hotly desired by Chinese consumers

Whether you’re planning on doing a big muddy walk on boxing day, or have perhaps asked for a pair of these bad boys for Christmas, or simply have some stored away for the summer festivals these simple Wellington boots have turned themselves into one of the decades ‘must have’ pieces of footwear.

Founded over 50 years ago the Hunter wellington boot was a countryside staple. By the 1980s they started to grow in popularity as Lady Diana Spencer was regularly seen sporting a pair and for the sloaney wealthy upper-middle class country crowd the Hunter (along with the Barber) morphed into much more of a style item and status symbol than a green rubber boot. But it was in 2005 that the boot entered into a stage of its own when Kate Moss was seen wearing a pair at Glastonbury. Almost immediately the boot turned into a festival go-ers ‘must have’. The company expanded its product range to provide an array of stylish, wacky and cool boots penetrating this niche. But its success did not stop there, the wellington boot, now stamped with Moss’ approval, was strongly desired by the fashion world and soon wellington designed boots for the fashionista’s city life were being produced (we loved the patent black ones!)

In December 2010, Hunter reported a profit of £16 million on sales of £56 million (a 28% profit margin) in more than 20 countries. In order to move into Asia the British company (who have seen radical growth) now need to expand their knowledge pool which is where Searchlight (along with their funding) will come into play

What the world's biggest sites looked like at launch

We've been playing around with Facebook's timeline and looking at photos from five six years ago, oh how young we looked. In keeping with this spirit, Mashable have recently posted what the world's largest sites looked like at launch. http://mashable.com/2011/12/11/old-web-design/

We think its pretty cool, if not.... retro

Yahoo; founded 1995

Amazon; founded 1995

New York Times; founded 1996

Google; founded 1998

Myspace; founded 2003

Facebook; founded 2004

Youtube; founded 2005

Twitter; founded 2006

The Faberge Egg nests itself in London

Tiny, gorgeous and intricate. The Faberge egg is a coveted item, and its history dates back to Russia 1842 . So, we’re so excited to hear that the Faberge brand is opening a new store in London. It is the first time in nearly a century that Faberge has had a store in London. Due to the repatriation of Russian goods at the beginning of World War I, the last Faberge store in London closed in 1915. Its first store had opened in 1906 on Dover Street (in London’s Mayfair), moving to 173 Bond Street in 1910.

New ownership of Faberge has meant the company has begun to expand internationally again after nearly a hundred years of solitude

Facts about Faberge

Founded: 1842 by Gustav Faberge, who moved from France to Russia in the 1830s to train as a Goldsmith

Famous for: Imperial Faberge Eggs, the Rothschild egg recently sold at auction by Chrisities for $19.5 million!

Russian Revolution: put a stop to the House of Faberge in 1917. The company was nationalised and all production closed down. By the time of the Revolution Faberge had produced more than 155,000 items spanning jewellery, objects, tableware and accessories

Purchased in 2007: by Pallinghurst Resources (a London based private equity group), from… Unilever

The Faberge Family: In the 1950s the family was stripped of the rights to use the Faberge name as a US company forced the Faberge’s to relinquish them for a mere $25,000. Pallinghurst has reunited the brand with the family who now sit on the Faberge Heritage Council to guide the trademark to its original values, philosophy and spirit.

Bobbi Brown - beauty isn't about looking perfect

According to Bobbi Brown beauty is “a strong brow, bedroom eyes, a bump on the nose – these are the features that inspire… beauty isn’t about looking perfect”. We love this outlook!

Bobbi’s view, at the time of launching the renowned Bobbi Brown range was unconventional and went against every rule in the cosmetic industry’s book. But this outlook paid off and the understanding that “makeup is a way for a woman to look and feel like herself, only prettier and more confident” is central to the brand.

Bobbi Brown, an American by birth, was a graduate in theatrical make-up. Starting in NYC as a typical make-up artist she built up a credible portfolio earning her gigs with top magazines, photographers, and models.

Ten years into her career Bobbi was frustrated that it was so hard to find and use cosmetics that created a natural look. It was by chance that she met a chemist on a shoot who changed everything. Giving the chemist a set of unprecedented lipstick specifications (no smell, not dry and not greasy that looked like lips, but better), Bobbi was presented with a pink/brown-based smooth lipstick, and it was from there that the birth of her natural lipstick range began. In 1991, Bobbi with $10,000 to back her business debuted the lipsticks and expecting to sell 100 in a month, sold 100 in the first day. The range expanded quickly as magazine editors got behind Bobbi and her small brand. Soon Bobbi launched foundations that were yellow-based, not pink - a first in the industry. By 1995, only four years after Bobbi started the company, Estee Lauder bought the firm. She’s had two major offers already, but Estee Lauder offered her the chance to retain creative control and so, to this day she still does.

Sales at Estee Lauder were initially flat so Bobbi addressed this by taking the brand out of the standard shop and office building and into a cool downtown New York loft putting her head of marketing as president under the instructions to completely change and open out the culture. Products became fun and fresh and her adverts more magazine like - Bobbi was one of the first companies to do smashed and smeared lipstick shots and to regularly use black or Asian models. Numbers improved and by 2006 hit half a billion. Bobbi continues to expand her range and still retains absolute control over the company. Still based in a loft, she sits on the same floor as her team to work

E-commerce... State Side

Excuse us? $6 billion? For the second consecutive week, online sales in the US hit $5.9 billion with seasonal growth rates at 15% according to comscore. So while the highstreet is quiet, online is clearly thriving. Since Comscore started recording US e-commerce in 2001, seven individual shopping days have surpassed the $1 billion mark, six of these days occured this year.

The Fair Isle Knit

It’s about this time of year that the thick woolly jumpers come out to cosy up in. The fair isle knit – everyone’s favourite Christmas woolly – named after a tiny island in the north of Scotland, is one we seriously feel deserves some rightful recognition and what better way to do so than through the popular company Jack Wills who stock some epic xmas knits

Jack Wills

Also known as the sloane’s wardrobe haven, Jack Wills (and its older brother Aubin & Wills) stock plenty of fair isle knit jumpers at this time of year. It was founded in 1999 in Salcombe, Devon producing British heritage-inspired goods aimed at the university crowd – so lots of hoodies and trackies. It was started by Peter William and Robert Shaw who concocted the idea of an ultimate clean – living, attractively bookish yet sporty brand with flirtation at its core. Having expanded overseas to the US and with 30 stores plus in the UK, 2007 witnessed a stake of the company be sold to a private equity firm , 2009 saw it double its profits to £42m and its product range has now expanded to include homeware and makeup! Our favourite knit of the moment? We lurve the Frensham Jumper… and the Dunsford… and those cute red and white knitted scarf and gloves…oh and not forgetting the Aldrich, the Elmswell cardi and the Earlswood….

Facts about the Fair Isle knit:

Traditional knitting technique used to make patterns with multiple colours

Comes all the way from a teeny island in Scotland (one of remotest off shore island communities in the UK, there are only 70 or so islanders!)

It was made popular in 1921 when the then Prince of Wales wore fair isle tank top in public

Tea, Cake and Snow

This weekend if you're hitting the Christmas shopping, on a romantic date or just out and about enjoying the attractions (you'll find us in Hyde Park's winter wonderland), then why not also grab a warm cup of tea and a tasty slice of stolen (or a mince pie too) in a cosy bolt hole?

We're definitely going to do that, and if we were up in the North of England we'd head straight to Betty's.With grand chocolate tortes, petit fours, chocolate panforte, spiced panetone, advent cakes, chocolate orange biscuits and more to catch your eye, package up to take home or just devour, Betty's is the ultimate winter tea house. Being one of the most famous tea shops in a country famous for its high tea, the first shop was opened in 1919 by a Swiss orphan, Frederick Belmont. He'd arrived in London and asked to go to a town that sounded like "Bratwurst" , he luckily ended up in Bradford and it was there that the idea of Betty's was created. Belmont served up mouth-watering Swiss confectionary within a warm Yorkshire atmosphere which has remained central to the company since. Betty's is famous for its tea, which should come as no surprise as the company purchased the tea blenders Taylors of Harrogate in 1962, which soon became one of the UK's most popular tea companies by selling the hotly demanded Yorkshire Tea. Now Betty's has 6 cafes, a bakery school and revenues of £88.7 million (2010).

One enchanting thing is that to this day the identity of Betty remains a family mystery.

Spotify

Have you got the Holiday playlists up?

Spotify is adjusting itself to become more than just a music service, but become a music platform by offering apps that are imbedded into it, such as the Rolling Stone music magazine, Tunewiki, Song Kick and the internet radio last f.m. Great news for die hard music lovers.

This comes after the recent and, arguably successful, Spotify and Facebook partnership. The reason why Spotify integrated into the social networking site, they say is very clear. Tying up with social networks and devices so that listener can share their music is the only way to stop piracy and save the music industry. UK music was down 11.4% in October this year compared to the same time last year.

Our holiday mix tape:

Such a Night Elvis Presley

Winter Winds Mumford & Sons

Happy Holiday Bing Crosby

Homeward Bound Simon & Garfunkle

Goin’ Home Dan Auerbach

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas The Carpenters

Pata Pata Miriam Makeba

Home for the holidays Perry Como