Cambridge Satchel Company has bright beginning
By Meg Moore
While heading to fashion shows in New York City or running errands in Chicago, street style photographers stop the fashionable to pose for pictures.
Prior to owning my fluorescent pink Cambridge satchel, the only time a photographer asked to take my picture was to shoot 17 different angles of my nose for her plastic surgeon.
But my handbag requires its own press agent now. It’s featured in the New York Post’s Page Six magazine, though you can tell it’s me wearing it.
The satchel’s designer, Julie Deane, started her company in Cambridge, England, five years ago. She had no design experience but she had the best inspiration — her two children.
“I was determined to set this up because my daughter, Emily, was being bullied,” Deane said. “I needed to send her to private school, but if I sent her, I had to send both.”
Her mother helped her set up shop in the Deane’s family home, and with some sage advice from Elle U.K.’s fashion assistant Amy Bannerman, the line exploded last year.
“She absolutely clued us in to the bright color trend,” Deane said during the February launch of her latest Pantone collaboration, exclusive to Bloomingdale’s.
While the satchels are de rigueur for those who saw them last fall during Fashion Week, the U.K.-based company had 34,000 satchels to produce — and quickly.
“Each satchel is handmade in our factory in Leicester,” Deane said. “And it takes an hour and 20 minutes from start to finish. So we had some work to do.”
The handbag designer also has collaborated with fashion designers Erdem and Comme des Garcons for their runway shows.
While the accolades from the press, fashionistas and now the entire cast and crew of “Mad Men” (Deane designed a satchel complete with the fictional advertising agency’s logo), Deane remains pretty low key.
Although she lives in England now, she lived in Rockford for five years — a carriage ride in downtown Chicago was the site of her marriage proposal. Her family adores hitting Taste of Chicago while visiting her husband’s relatives in Evanston.
But the best part of the company’s success?
“If my story inspires some people to do something — just do it,” Deane said. “I want to encourage more people who have a dream to just have a go.”
As her two muses and huge Harry Potter fans gave their fashion-designer mom a hug, Deane had a final thought.
“If all those girls in my school could see me now,” she said. “There’s real hope for all of us geeks.”
Originally published March 29, 2012 in Pioneer Press Newspapers. Reposted with permission.