The Cambridge Satchel Company won ‘Fashion & Retail Personnel Smaller Etailer’ at Drapers Fashion Awards 2012 at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.
Founder, Julie Deane said, “Drapers is the real fashion industry standard and for them and the fashion industry professionals to believe that The Cambridge Satchel Company is worthy of this awards means the world to us.”
With her story shown in the recent Google Chrome ad, Julie Deane set up the company in 2007 when she wanted to raise money to send her daughter to a new school and came up with an idea to make traditional leather satchels for the schoolchildren of Cambridge. Investing just £600 to get the idea off the ground, The Cambridge Satchel Company is now a pioneering 62-person enterprise, experiencing phenomenally fast growth around the world. In 2012 The Cambridge Satchel Company is forecasting a turnover of over £15m and now sells in over 100 countries.
Deane is committed to preserving British manufacturing - a luxury rarely afforded by start-up businesses. Despite enormous pressure to satisfy demand with an overseas production model, Deane has ensured that each stage in producing every bag sold has taken place on British soil. All bags are made of 100% Bovine Leather.
The quirky colourful leather satchels modelled on the 1970s original are now stocked in Selfridges and Dover Street Market, and the company has collaborated with Commes des Garcons at Paris Fashion Week and, more recently, with Christopher Shannon for unique spring/summer 2012 capsule collection. A bloggers’ favourite, the bags have been featured in Mad Men and Gossip Girl.
The annual Drapers Fashion Awards welcomes over 1,000 of fashion’s finest retailers and brands to its 22nd event. Considered the Oscars of the industry, the Awards salute excellence in fashion retailing.
