Mulberry and Paul Smith have joined forces to release collaborative Antony collection. The collaboration brings together two brands synonymous with British style and craft in a 10-piece capsule collection, uniting Mulberry’s iconic Antony bag and commitment to UK manufacturing, with Paul Smith’s love of stripes and colour.
The collaboration reflects the brands’ shared appreciation of heritage style and history of championing the British creative community.
Previewed at Paul Smith’s AW23 men’s show in Paris earlier this year, the collection takes Mulberry’s timeless Antony style as its starting point and,alongside three sizes of the classic design, includes two brand new silhouettes created for the collaboration: the Antony Clip, a mini crossbody bag, and the Antony Tote. First introduced as a men’s everyday bag, with its signature Postman’s Lock hardware and elegantly practical silhouette, the Antony, has become one of Mulberry’s most iconic styles – worn by both men and women, making it the natural choice for the unisex collection, and embodying Paul Smith’s design ethos.
The new Mulberry x Paul Smith collection tells two distinct stories, each championing Paul Smith’s historic and iconic use of stripes while remaining true to Mulberry’s heritage DNA. The first is a classic black heavy grain leather, which features striped webbing straps and a pop colour lining. The second is a smooth calf’s leather with a bold colour-blocking theme, which incorporates Paul Smith’s recently introduced Shadow Stripe motif, created here by embossing leather using a new technique.
Elegant and dynamic, the collection represents the very best that contemporary British creativity, traditional craftsmanship, and modern luxury has to offer.
With British craft and heritage at the core of the collaboration, and reflective of both brands’ commitment to sustainability – embodied in Mulberry’s Made to Last ethos and Paul Smith’s ‘Path to Sustainability’ manifesto – each piece in the collection has been produced in the UK at Mulberry’s carbon-neutral Somerset factories,
where over half of the brand’s collections are still made. The collaboration is crafted from carbon neutral leather, a requirement across all Mulberry bags since 2022, and is certified to the highest Gold standard by the Leather Working Group for their environmental performance.
Sir Paul Smith says: “Paul Smith and Mulberry were founded within a year of each other in the 1970s, so you could say our brands grew up and came of age together. I think that’s at least partly why we share such a similar approach to creativity and craft – that and our Britishness. Working together to ensure the collection was created in the UK was something we knew we wanted to do from the beginning, and the results speak for themselves.”
Thierry Andretta, Mulberry CEO, says: “We’re delighted to be collaborating with Paul Smith on a collection that celebrates our shared values of creativity, craft and British heritage. Reflecting our Made to Last ethos and longstanding commitment to manufacturing in the UK, we are proud that every piece in the collection will be made at one of our two carbon-neutral Somerset factories.”
The limited-edition Mulberry x Paul Smith collection launches today, 4 September 2023. Prices start from £450 for Mini Antony to £1,295 for Antony Tote.
