Interview with founder of Paradise Row

Interview with the brand founder of Paradise Row

29th July 2020

Paradise Row is an emerging British leather brand handcrafting quality leather goods in East London. Featured in The Times by Anna Muphy’s “Best Bags Under £500” and now stocked in Bergdorf Goodman in New York we are excited to present to you an in depth chat with the inspiring brand founder Nika.

How/ why was Paradise Row established?

Paradise Row was established during a time when I was living in Bethnal Green and was inspired by the history of the design and fashion of the local area as well as the well-established brands that started out in East London too, such as Anya Hindmarch and Jimmy Choo. However, what I wanted to create with Paradise Row is for the brand not only to start out locally, but to continue manufacturing locally too.

Supporting local manufacturers and talent is something that Paradise Row is well known for.

What is it that created these values for the brand?

When I discovered that East London used to have a large manufacturing and textile industry, I delved into the history and had found that in the last thirty or forty so years, hundreds of workshops closed up shop because brands started outsourcing their manufacturing abroad for cheaper labour. This had a domino effect on the area whereby a number of jobs were lost, families had separated due to workers looking outside of the area for work and communities had disappeared. A huge loss of industry is devastating to the area and its people, therefore, I wanted to create a London brand which actually produces in London and be one of the few brands that is helping restore the area’s former industry.

Why do you work in leather?

Leather is a versatile and beautiful material which adds an element of luxury. The quality of the material and its construct enables it to be applied to a variety of different pieces. It is more sustainable than faux leather which is made out of plastic and outlives nature; whereas leather biodegrades within a human lifetime. Leather also is a by-product of the food industry, therefore if the skins are not used, they go to waste.

During these challenging times, have you made any changes to your brand and the way that you operate?

Certainly, we are becoming more ecommerce and less wholesale focused. At the start of the pandemic, we started an online #supportyourlocal campaign where we were selling our factory seconds at cost price and then donating 100% of these proceeds to local charities of East London which inspired the CORE collection in the first place. The online campaign was such a success that we sold out of our factory seconds within a fortnight, which in turn showed us the power of social media even at the most challenging times.

Your collections and concepts show a lot of depth and consideration, how is it that you gain inspiration and create concepts for your collections?

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it when it gets noticed that a lot of thought has gone behind these collections. Personally for me, I do not draw inspiration from trends of the time, because what I am trying to convey with my designs is a story. Each collection draws inspiration from different aspects of society that I would like to talk about; the first collection is based on culture, the second on psychology and the most recent collection onthe arts. These concepts are what makes the collections timeless, because their design and inspiration are not tied to a particular trend.

To be named Best Luxury Eco Brand by British Vogue must have been a real achievement for the brand! How do you keep sustainability at the core of operation for Paradise Row?

Yes it is and it is an incredible feeling to know that the industry is recognising the efforts of Paradise Row. Paradise Row’s brand’s identity was originally built on social impact and sustainability – By keeping manufacturing local, we support a local trade chain of the leather industry and keep business in the local area and also help preserve British craftsmanship. In addition to supporting the local community and culture, it is also environmentally beneficial, as carbon emissions are kept low as the studio office is also based in the local area too.

Paradise Row is set to be launching new lifestyle products in September; can you tell us more about this?

We are incredibly excited for the launch of our lifestyle products in September! Since starting collaborations with many establishments within the hospitality industry, such as Petersham Nurseries and Sager and Wilde, we realised that what we are loved for is for our leather, which is vegetable-tanned. These collaborations set us apart from other leather brands and we became known as a leather goods brand rather than a handbag brand. Naturally, it then made sense to us to branch out into lifestyle products where consumers can bring an element of luxury to their home, travel and work as well as their personal style.

Where is it that we can find your products?

We are stocked at Fortnum & Mason, Fenwick Bond St, Earl of East Coal Drops Yard and Bergdorf Goodman in New York and of course, on our site at paradiserowlondon.com