Smythson introduces the Enid - new season designer handbag

Smythson introduces the Enid - new season designer handbag

March 18th, 2009

Sadly one of the best ways to freshen up your fashionista wardrobe without spending a lot of money on new clothes is to spend a lot of money on a new handbag instead. But with the new season handbags from Smythson surely we can be forgiven for melting the credit card plastic a bit?

The new season Smythson bag - the Enid - is pretty special. A smart, functional and structured bag available in small, large and clutch bag sizes, the Enid range of designer bags is available in muted colours - chalk, pebble and granite (that’s off-white, grey and sort-of-dark-grey-black to the rest of us). Before you think this means we now have to match our bags to our gloomy recessionista moods, there is also a rather stunning coral and grey Enid to add a bit of brightness.

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This is the large Smythson Enid bag, in soft Pebble-coloured goatskin. Large enough for travel and business use, it has a sumptuous peach silk lining with two ruched pockets, one long zip pocket and a longer compartment for business papers or magazines. It has a shagreen grey and gold clasp, and costs £895. The large Enid bag in Pebble is 33.5 x 25 x 12cm (20 cm handle drop) / 13″ x 10″ x 4 3/4″ (8″ handle drop).

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The small Smythson Enid handbag in goatskin again has a luxurious peach silk interior, It has two ruched internal pockets and one long zipped pocket. Shown here in Chalk, the small Enid has a shagreen grey and gold clasp, and measures 32 x 21 x 12cm (13cm handle drop) / 12 1/2″ x 8 1/4″ x 4 3/4″ (5 1/4″ handle drop). The small Enid bag in Pebble costs £775.

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This elegant Enid glutch bag in dark-grey Granite will take you from day to evening with ease. made of soft goatskin, the Enid clutch has a peach silk interior and ruched internal pockets, with a pretty external shagreen grey and gold clasp to close. The Enid clutch bag measures 27.5 x 13 x 6cm / 11″ x 5″ x 2 1/2″ and costs £550.

At time of writing, all the Enid bags shown above are in stock at the Smythson online store - you can view the full Smythson Enid range here, and those not currently in stock are available to pre-order with a four-week wait. And all these Smythson bags come presented in Smythson’s distinctive and beautiful Nile Blue gift packaging.

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The Enid designer handbag and clutch range from the luxury leather goods firm Smythson is named after Samantha Cameron’s playwright great-grandmother, Enid Bagnold. I’m loving the old fashioned handbag names but I am wondering how other handbag manufacturers come up with them. Do they have to work through the alphabet in order, like meteorologists naming tropical storms and hurricanes? Or look in The Times “hatch, match and despatch” columns pre-1940 and take it from there?

Are they going to run out of old fashioned names or will we keep going backwards until we’re wearing the Frideswide or the Hildegard? Or the pre-language Ugh (okay maybe not the Ugh). And which edgy new handbag designer will go out on a limb and offer us the Demi-Leigh or the Candice-Chantelle*, or even name his/her new must-have designer handbag after Grandma Hilda who worked in a pie factory and needed a bag with a fags’n'curlers pocket (but would never have spent £1000 on a handbag in a thousand years)?

But if £800+ on a designer handbag is just too much (whether named after a celebrated society playwright or your pie-factory Nan) - but you still NEED a designer handbag treat - then don’t forget to check out the cute Anya Hindmarch summer canvas totes which are only £55 each - or £100 for two.

*I actually like Candice-Chantelle but then I have pregnancy-brain and so am not to be trusted name-wise.