To end the week we have something a little bit different ... a guest blog post from Handbag Designer, Helen Rochfort; a lovely insight into the inspiration behind her unique range of handbags, and her recent collaboration with Author Carole Matthews, which has resulted in a book - 'Summer Dreams' - inspired by Helen's real-life journey to becoming a Handbag Designer.
Helen Rochfort ...
Inspiration
for my designs comes from nostalgia: 1940's to 1980's art, film,
design, fashion and food, but I add in modern new and fresh elements.
Films
including Mary Poppins, the 1970's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
factory, and Alice in Wonderland are a great inspiration for my designs.
Anything from
a
vintage piece of fabric, sweet shops, a delicious scent, ice-cream vans,
Pop Art or old music footage of the 1960's can inspire a handbag. I
love the mix of old
and new, and fresh and bright designs with a twist of vintage.
Graffiti designs from artist Fafi are amazing! I have a great love for
fairy tales especially the darker side of them, including Red Riding Hood
and Hansel and Gretel. Humour and twists are added
to many of my designs - as fashion should be fun and not taken too
seriously.
Carole
and I had become friends after initially meeting over Facebook. My
status picture was a picture of Barbara Cartland and Carole thought
I was
a romance writer - but it was just my sense of humour. She fell in love
with my handbags and, over the months we kept in touch through the
internet. Carole then asked me to create a limited edition handbag for
one of her novels, The Chocolate Lovers’ Club.
When we got chatting about life in general over a few glasses of
wine, Carole picked up on the fact that I’d had quite a lot of colourful
experiences - perfect for a novel. Sometimes, life really is a lot
stranger and more crazy than fiction!
The
last ten years have been incredibly tough - we’ve had a lot of ups and
downs along the way and the book is a fantastic mirror of our
experiences
but on a much shorter timescale. It’s great that something so wonderful
and positive has come out of it. Thank you,
Summer Daydreams!
Summer Daydreams by Carole Matthews (Sphere, £6.99) is available from all good bookshops, and to see more or purchase one of Helen's handbags please visit the Helen Rochfort website.
If you have an idea for a guest post for Card & Gift Blog, email me: mail@cardandgiftblog.com
If you have an idea for a guest post for Card & Gift Blog, email me: mail@cardandgiftblog.com
