Radley Bags

Radley bags are the biggest selling handbag brand in the United Kingdom.

One might be forgiven in believing that handbag market brand marks such as Versace, Chanel and Gucci create the best figures in terms of sales. But, in the U.K these top design names are overshadowed by a British company that only began in business twelve years ago !

This company is called "Radley".

Recognised by the famous dog silhouette that appears on all their products Radley handbags have burst onto the designer handbag landscape and the company continues to strengthen their position as the most popular designer handbag in the UK. Although the brand isn't really considered as a "catwalk designer handbag" it's astonishing success stems from the thousands of customers who truly adore the bags and line up whenever the brand new Radley picture handbag is launched.

The company started with a vision by a lady called Rachel Harder, who experimented with different designs and styles for handbags, outsourcing the manufacture to the Far East and then started selling her handbags at a market stall in her town.. The handbags were extremely popular and caught the attention of retail department store buyers who could see the commercial potential and appeal of Rachel Harder's handbag designs.

Once Harder had won some orders from some of the biggest department stores in the country she realised that she was onto a potentially winning idea but she came down to earth with a bump when she also realised that she couldn't fund the mass production of her own handbags. At the very edge of success Rachel had to consider the dreadful possibility of being unable to finance the deal but she was lucky to be able to secure support from a number of investment backers and she's never looked back since. Some years later, by selling her company to a bigger organisation it liberated Harder to solely focus on her strengths-designing handbags.

From the beginning Harder's designs always included the silhouette of a dog as it's official company logo and after a few years this dog started to appear more often. These days, the famous dog logo is even prominently featured into Radley's popular designs on their well known picture bags.

Radley's signature handbags are so called for the reason that they are considered to be Radley's marquee bag. These signature handbags are extremely original in that every signature bag has a colour filled scene featuring the Radley dog (commonly known as "Radley"). The scenes are wonderfully created using appliqued leather patches and they tend to reflect a scene that has some connection to the time in which the picture bag is launched. And so, their picture bags are released twice a year, Spring/Summer and for Autumn/Winter.. To compliment the picture handbag collection Radley also create matching coin purses.

It isn't all about the signature handbag though as the company creates various other designs of bags from shoulder bags to mini bags, even evening clutch bags. The collection has branched out to now include a large selection of Radley accessories. passport covers, umbrellas, suitcases, keyrings etc have been part of the accessories collection for some time now but more recently the company have moved into clothing, winter hats and sunglasses.

Radley shops are appearing throughout the UK and they are a great way to actually see how the handbags look up close-an excellent way of checking before you buy.