A warm welcome to our first Newsletter of 2013, snappily named Newsletter 2013_01. New year, new format; the eagle-eyed among you will note we’ve dropped the monthly titles in favour of a numerical label, which we hope will be clearer and will also avoid some of our embarrassment at occasional late publication. We will however continue to publish monthly, we just won’t worry whether it’s on the 31st of one or the 1st of another. The calibre of our content will improve. I say this with absolute confidence, not because my own writing skills have flourished, but because we are drawing on the considerable talent of Mr Luke Edward Hall as guest Journal writer, for a month or two at least. His first piece on Hardy Amies is timed to coincide with Cherchbi’s first venture onto the catwalk. Yes, our bags will parade through the Salon of Savile Row’s most esteemed tailoring house tomorrow, Wednesday 9th January. An exciting start to 2013. Read on.

Hardy Amies: The man, the House and the History, by Luke Edward Hall.

On the eve of the Hardy Amies Autumn Winter ’13 show Luke Edward Hall gives a personal account of the inspirational Sir Hardy Amies. Read this in the Journal here. As we mentioned, this show will also mark Cherchbi’s catwalk debut as we produced the bags, under Claire Malcolm’s direction, which will go on to be shown to an eager global audience via the company’s Italian showroom.

George RW Cutts

Over the past three weeks we have become mildly obsessed with the illustrative artwork of George RW Cutts. His work has a depth which perhaps isn’t immediately apparent, his style and more importantly subject matter is quirky, honest and interesting. He holds his first solo exhibition at Parade in Margate between 15th and 20th February and, we are excited to report, is currently working on something rather special for Cherchbi. Read our Journal entry here for a little more information.

New stockist – Private White V.C.

We place great importance on our stockist relationships. There are some wonderful stores out there managed by passionate, creative folks who take great pride in their selection of goods and who regularly run the extra mile for their customers. One such place is Private White V.C., two actually, they have stores on London’s Monmouth Street in Soho and Lambs Conduit Street in Bloomsbury, here you’ll find a selection of Cherchbi bags amongst some of the finest quality British design and manufacture in the country. The brand is rooted in Manchester, the location of the factory which is owned and operated by the great grandchildren of namesake Jack White. Read much more about the fascinating story of Private White V.C. on their website.

Introducing Luke Edward Hall

You will have read a sample of his work in the earlier Hardy Amies piece, but here our Journal post reveals a little more about this talented writer, designer, burgeoning antique expert and all-round creative soul. More still can be found on his own website.

The Answer

The British weather is infamous the world over. It’s not all bad, on occasion we find a wet day as invigorating as sunshine and blue skies. But, these days are less fun without a waterproof layer. Waterproofing is important. The Herdwick animals whose fleece eventually becomes our tweed cloth live in the high mountains surrounding the wettest place in England. They know all about the importance of waterproofing. For Cherchbi bag production we adhere a layer of latex rubber to our Herdwyck No.10 tweed. A brilliantly robust wool tweed, that’s also waterproof – this is our answer to the question posed by the British weather.