Fashion's Newest Bag Ladies

JUST in time for fashion week, one of London's favourite fashion faces, Yasmin Sewell, has embarked on a collaboration that will no doubt have a heavy presence at the shows. Through her label Être Cécile - creator of insoucciant, quirky-cool separates to date - she has teamed up with Aspinal of London - purveyor of all things leather and luxury - to create a collection that blends the best of the two brands. "The collaboration is unexpected and that's why it works so well for both brands, surprising and exciting the loyal, and very different, customers," said Aspinal creative director Mariya Dykalo, reserving high praise for Sewell. "Her bold and brave use of colour, mixing up the norm, really appealed to me so it seemed natural to see what we could do together as brands. It all moved quite quickly from there we are really lucky that Yasmin and her team were a breath of fresh air to work with, making it very easy for us!" For Sewell it is the largest-scale collaboration that she has worked on to date with Être Cécile (the brand usually works with individuals rather than big brands) and it was something of a learning curve. "They had their own lead times and development plan that we had to stick to as they are creating leathergoods," Sewell told us of the process. "Trickiest part was that we had to come up with the theme and design the collection 12 months before it launches and normally we do this six to eight months before. It was different thinking but all in all super fun. The process was actually pretty seamless, they let us do what we wanted and they were open to us creating something much more mental than they ever had." As a style-setter in her own right, the success of the collection already bodes well - especially as her little black book is already queuing up to be seen in the line - but Sewell is hoping to please loyal Aspinal shoppers too. "Hopefully we'll convert some existing customers and also our typical young cool Cécile girl will start to appreciate a brand as lovely and refined as Aspinal." Être Cécile X Aspinal of London launches exclusively at Selfridges this week.