Right after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their engagement official, the “Markle effect” became a thing.
In a report by WWD, Rosemary Feitelberg talks about the Markle economy: the effect the royal has on smaller brands, and how her influence is helping them succeed.
One of those brands was the under-the-radar Scottish brand Strathberry. During Meghan Markle’s first official royal outing with Prince Harry back in December, the soon-to-be-royal was spotted during their trip to Nottingham carrying a midi tote by Strathberry. 11 minutes later, the tri-color Burgundy-Navy-Vanilla purse with the brand’s signature gold bar closure was sold out.
The Edinburgh-based company, Strathberry was founded by Guy and Leeanne Hundleby in 2013. Each one of the mid-price high quality handbags is assembled by hand in Spain, a process that takes around 20 hours to be completed. The brand was doing fine, but when Meghan Markle stepped out of the car carrying the $ 675 midi tote, a new “it” bag was born.
“Admittedly that was the world’s craziest day ever, but the aftermath was madness,” says the co-founder of the Scottish brand Leeanne in an interview with South China Morning Post. “One day we had a call from our painter to let us know that some girls had tracked down where we lived and were standing outside the front door looking to buy handbags. It was surreal.”
For Fall 2018 the brand introduced a new color palette a mixing of warm earthy tones and deep blue hues.
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