UK vs US | The Brands To Know

The Cambridge Satchel Company

British brand The Cambridge Satchel Company creates classic leather satchels with a modern twist and is infamous for its broad array of colours ranging from traditional tan to fluroescent pink. Always based on a classic, British, traditional heritage, The Cambridge Satchel Company was founded in 2008 by creator Julie Deane OBE from her kitchen table with just £600 and has now taken the world by storm, stocked in over 120 countries the world-over.

In 2016, The Cambridge Satchel Company released the Magnetic Closure Collection, taking the traditional buckle fastening and replacing it with magnets for ease of access which soon became a blogger and celebrity favourite. To help choose the perfect satchel size for you take a look at our Cambridge Satchel Company size guide.

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Olivia Burton

Olivia Burton watches are feminine, effortlessly elegant and full of quintessentially British charm. Founded by best friends and ex-fashion buyers Jemma and Lesa, who met at their first day at the London College of Fashion and bonded over a love of design, a passion to start their own business and a mutual struggle to find a watch that they wanted to wear. After graduating and pursuing careers in fashion buying, clocking up time at brands including Topshop, ASOS and Selfridges, the idea of going it alone was slowly gathering momentum and in 2011 the pair made the leap, quit their jobs and set out to create their own beautiful, unique watches from the kitchen table. Inspired by vintage patterns, the British countryside and a trickle down of runway trends, Olivia Burton watches are filled with fun loving charm, using Bees, floral patterns and woodland scenes to compliment pastel colourways and shining rose-gold hardware with matching jewellery sets.

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Lulu Guinness

Lulu Guinness OBE is famed for her witty, quirky and vibrant handbags and accessories. The designer’s strong personal style and innovative ideas sparked her success back in 1989 with her inspiration a fusion of retro glamour and modern chic. Her brand hit headlines as part of her ‘Collectables’ range, Lulu’s The Florist Basket was iconic in the modern accessories field, and now forms a permanent feature of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s “The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion 1947-1997” exhibition in London. Lulu Guinness have been described as “tomorrow’s treasures” and are instantly recognisable with heavy features including the iconic lip print along and candy stripes.

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Paul Smith

Paul Smith opened his first store in Nottingham in 1970, after leaving school at the age of 16 with no qualifications. Taking evening classes in tailoring, he showed his first menswear collection in 1976 and the Paul Smith label has grown ever since. A highly respected fashion house, Paul Smith creates unique British designs that mix traditional and classic styles with a sense of humour and mischief and the Paul Smith accessories range allows a sense of mischief to be held in every pocket.

Combining fashion and function with styles that transcend trends, the newest collection of Paul Smith accessories is ever inkeeping with the brand’s iconic features, including the multi-colour stripe in variety accross the collection.

The Best in the U.S.

With sportswear at the helm of design inspiration, American heritage icons from Ralph Lauren to Tommy Hilfiger reign supreme accross the pond. Constantly blending the lines between streetwear and luxury to build the ultimate trend-led accessories collections, we’re here to talk the US brands to have on your radar.

Lauren Ralph Lauren

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Tommy Hilfiger

One of the world’s leading lifestyle brands, Tommy Hilfiger is globally renowned for bringing preppy American style to the masses. Combining premium styling with high quality fabrics and a strong brand aesthetic, Tommy Hilfiger accessories combine luxury fabrications with fashion-forward design to stand at the forefront of sports-luxe accessories. With vintage Tommy re-emerging in the market as a prized trend, more recent collections hark back to the iconic 80s sports styling the brand is renowned for.

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Kate Spade

Kate Spade New York is a global designer fashion, accessories and lifestyle brand famous for its playful sophistication and incandescent charm. At its core is its mantra to live colourfully, blending its meticulous attention to luxury fabrications and shapes with bold, colourful designs that add exuberance, energy and fun to the everyday. Founded in 1993 by former accessories editor Kate Spade, the brand was born with its founder’s ambition to design the perfect handbag. Starting out with six sleek, utilitarian silhouettes, the world quickly became enamoured of Kate Spade New York‘s fresh, modern sensibility and one store in New York soon proliferated to many stores in the world’s most prestigious cities.

Today Kate Spade New York continues to curate a carefully selected collection of designer handbags and accessories imbued with the brand’s signature personal style in fine leathers and classic shapes.

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Tom Ford

The eponymous Tom Ford brand was launched in 2006, and quickly became an enormous fashion success. The label specialised in beautiful clothing, beauty, sunglasses and accessories, and it gained notoriety among celebrities and public figures: with Michelle Obama having worn a Tom Ford gown to Buckingham Palace in 2011, need we say any more?

Tom Ford sunglasses and accessories have quickly become wardrobe staples for any fashion-forward individual, with cutting edge collections holding a classic contemporary elegance, successfully combining statement design with quality materials time and time again. Branded with the statement T logo, Tom Ford sunglasses are iconic and his accessories even more so.

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