Eureka 426: the rise of Sevda London

0:14You're listening to Eureka on Monocle Radio, brought to you by the team behind the entrepreneurs, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. I'm Tom Edwards. Serda Mutlu is a Turkish-born designer and the founder of the luxury handbag brand Serda London. After honing her craft designing for top leather brands in Istanbul, Serda moved to London in 2005, driven by her passion for creating timeless, high-quality accessories. In 2013, she launched her namesake label, driven by a desire to create the ultimate day-to-evening handbag. Every piece is designed in the British capital and handcrafted in Florence by artisans who work with some of the world's leading luxury brands.

0:58So, how do you combine London design, Italian craftsmanship and deep Turkish roots to create a unified brand identity? Well, here is Cerda with more on how the journey began. That idea of becoming a designer and creating something beautiful, meaningful, started from my root, from my upbringing. My mom was a professional tailor. My childhood is full of memories of watching her. I was born in Bursa, Turkey, at a sea close to Istanbul. And I studied fashion in Istanbul. I am a fine arts but textile graduate. that specifically my subject was textile. During my university years, I had applied a competition, the best leather designer of the year, even though to my surprise, I won it.

1:53And then the doors started opening and I started working. At the beginning, actually, this is how I decided to come to London and start the journey from here. Now we are in Paris as well, and we are growing through Paris, but London has always been home. This is where I started and I put London next to my name. That's another part of who I am. My intention always to keep my roots here now because this country, actually London, people were so open-minded. They accepted welcoming with open arms. It has been always the beginning of my journey and I very much appreciate it. Even though Turkey has that kind of culture, but somehow there was something was preventing me to grow through from Turkey.

2:43But here, just I felt freer and I realized that my talent is being appreciated by other people. And I realized that I saw that possibility. That's why I grabbed the opportunity.

3:02I am a designer of beautiful handbags that's designed in London and crafted in Italy in floors by Italian artisans that are working already for various high-end brands, the well-known brands from all around the world. The quality was extremely crucial and important for me. I tried here, but I didn't get the quality that I've been looking for. Then, because of my background, my connections, I tried in Turkey, but somehow it didn't click there as well. It's a sort of journey. One door closes, but it guides you to open another one. I was having my Bloomingdale's drink show in New York and one of the buyers of the store recommended me to go to Italy.

3:52They told me that I am quite talented. These bakes are amazing, yet the quality is not there. And that journey started from here. the back comes with the great values and the well intention and the synergy of the people are making it's already starting becoming sustainable somehow it's starting touching the other people's life because if you have products made with love obviously that energy somehow it attracts you just makes the product is even more valuable in your life i think from the because my name is love It's all about love and creating beautiful products will be loved by women. The main focus on the sustainability of the products, because of the high quality of the products, they will be cherished and will be worn for longer years because of their classical identities or the perfect detail, high quality materials.

4:56I am doing handbags. and also alongside the scarves, and we are going through this, but it's not going to limit it to those products now. The more projects are coming in the future. The most important part is obviously just sourcing the high-quality, best materials for the production, but yet finding the right people to collaborate and work with. Our collection on Save the London Bags soon will be available at Ritz Paris Gallery. And in their window displays and their concept stores, they will be able to buy the Save the London products. I think this collaboration is a huge advancement. They love the new collection.

5:43And they love the quality. They love the uniqueness of the bag. They said, let's collaborate. And I didn't want to say no. I think it's a great achievement. and our bags will be in Paris at Reeds up to March.

6:05That was Serda Mutlu, the founder and designer of Serda London. And you can learn more about the brand and its products by heading to serdalondon.com. And that's all for this episode of Eureka. We'll be back at the same time next week. The programme was produced by Laura Kramer with audio editing by Jack Dewars. You can listen again and find out more at monocle.com or follow us and browse the archive wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to contact the team, email Laura on lrk at monocle.com. I'm Tom Edwards. Goodbye and thanks for listening to Eureka.