A local Hong Kong brand, Louella Odié is heading away from the beaches and towards with the
hills with a textural collection of cross body bags in sumptuous hand-printed vegan friendly handbags. This Autumn capsule collection brings with it fresh perspectives featuring 4 different designs in 2 colour ways, all of which were hand printed
in the Louella Odié studio on Lamma Island, using traditional old-school
printing techniques. An added virtue of this material is it's complete
stain-resistance, despite looking and feeling exactly like fine suede. This
helps the bag cope beautifully with wine soaked parties, rain soaked hillsides and
all manner of wild living! Louella Odié is building a
reputation for quirky design as well as elegant patterns. The patterns come in two colours on a soft mocha
background, with a choice of Nearly Black or Cream. The witty Lattice Print combines modern Hong
Kong icons such as mobile phones, lunch boxes, coffee cups or headphones
against a background of traditional Chinese lattice windows. Continuing the
Asian theme, the next print features a traditional abacus as well as inspired by the alternative vibes
of Lamma Island where she lives featuring elaborate fringing with a bohemian streak. Louella Odié adopted a rescue dog from Hong Kong Dog Rescue
charity last October, and Trundle has not only taken over the whole office, but
is now also celebrated in the fourth print, available only in Nearly Black and
in a Limited Edition of 15 pieces. We have a word with both founder and designer aka mother and daughter duo of the brand, Karen & Lauren Mead.
What inspire you on this collection?
This Autumn Louella Odié is heading away from the beaches and towards with the hills with a textural collection of cross body bags. The new season brings with it fresh perspectives, including a resolution by the Louella Odié team to search out more environmentally-friendly and sustainable materials for their gorgeous products. Following feedback from vegetarian and vegan customers, the team decided to treat their vegan-friendly material with the same lavish attention normally reserved for the finest suedes and real leathers, which all feature unique prints created in-house by Creative Director and Print Maker Karen Mead.
What influence you on the oriental element design?
Louella Odié has become known for its strong graphic style and colour and the new collection does not disappoint! Elements related to Hong Kong have always been presented overtly or more subtly in Karen's personal art work as Hong Kong is home and a continued source of inspiration, this translated easily into designs for Louella Odié. In the first few designs, the visual link to place was deliberate and obvious, for instance using the city skyline in one of our first collections. Later products have less direct connections (although they are there) as the team gained confidence that the bags had more than local appeal. For Autumn, we have been inspired by traditional Chinese lattice window frames and the abacus, which sellers in the vegetable markets still use everyday.
How/Where do you get your resources and where is the production take place?
We only work with the highest quality material and a number of different suppliers to make sure we are always providing the best for our customers. We like to base our production in Hong Kong or Guangdong so that we can meet often with suppliers and check on all stages of the production process.
What does the brand would like to achieve?
That is a massive open-ended question! The short answer is obvious go "global domination"! The nuanced answer is that we want to build a brand that reaches out to strong women who are not afraid to carry pattern and whose heart is enhanced by island life.
Is there anyone that Louella Odié would like to collaborate with? Why?
Karen used to be a mural painter and is always looking for other surfaces to put her artwork on! Id you have an interesting pace in your home, business, restaurant, anywhere really that could do with a lot of colour then in touch! We're also actively pursuing licensing deals at the moment, so we hope you will see Louella Odié's prints poping up in new places from next year.
How many collection do you produce in one year?
We aim to release two collections a year, sometimes these will be a variation on a theme.
What are you working on now?
We are busy working on Summer 2016 at the moment and looking forward to seeing our first samples from those new designs soon. Karen is taking the opportunity to get out and do some drawing and sketching when the weather is cooler and some of these drawings will become the basis of future collections.
What is the distribution channel for the brand? Only online? Any shop?
We sell online through our own website www.louellaodie.com but we are also stocked with independent retailers in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, check out our www.louellaodie.com for a full list of stockists as well as working with the Four Seasons Hotel in Hopng Kong and Macau where Louella Odié handbags and scarves can be found in their gift shop and spa shops.
What is your favorite possession?
Apart from Trundle, our office Dachshund who features in the collection as one of our Limited Edition prints. Karen's favorite possession is her box of lino cutting tools which she uses to hand carve all of the patterns which you see on our products. Lauren's favorite possession is probably her phone (an iphone 4, still hanging on) although it's a love-hate relationship!
What is your ideal way of a living lifestyle?
We wanted to have it all, a country lifestyle on the edge of a city with a relaxing work space within our living space and luckily you can do all of that on Lamma island where we are based.
The founder and designer aka mother and daughter duo of the brand, Karen & Lauren Mead enjoying a relaxing afternoon with the latest Louella Odié collection.
We are giving a way this Louella Odié abacus clutch. Tell us how you would like to style it with by sending us an email to king.lifestylenews@gmail.com We will select the best answer and winner will be notified by email. mylifestylenews reserves the rights of final decision in case of disputes.
