Mulberry’s 50th anniversary celebrations continue as the  brand unveils an exciting new design collaboration with a long-time friend of the house and the woman who inspired  one of its most iconic bags: Alexa Chung.

Launching globally on 12th July, Mulberry x Alexa Chung is the latest chapter in Mulberry Editions. Amplifying its legacy of bold collaborations, Mulberry Editions is a series of limited edition capsules in which leading creatives have been invited to put their own spin on the house’s design DNA.  
Fortifying her close relationship with Mulberry, this is Chung’s design debut for the house.
’I thought it was a great, quite rare opportunity,’ she says. ‘I never expected to be invited to actually design my own Mulberry bag, which is really a dream come true’. 

The capsule stars two styles – a roomy shoulder bag, the Big Guy, and a compact clutch, the Little Guy. Both have a go-everywhere, wear-as-you-wish spirit. The effortless, sleek style of ‘70s style icons, like Charlotte Rampling and  Lauren Hutton, inform the pared-back aesthetic. Both bags  draw on the key components of Chung’s personal style:  masculine formality offset with a vintage romance and a  deep appreciation for British design.

My approach was: How can I honour the Alexa that became so popular and create something that I’m really happy with in 2021?
I did a lot of image research around the ’70s. I was looking at pictures of Lauren Hutton and Charlotte Rampling and also thinking about films like Working Girl and 9 to 5, this army of ‘boss women’ with careers, a new female workforce turning up to the office wearing tweed.
There are touches of vintage, touches of menswear. The menswear element was very important to me because that’s how I like my handbags to be. They can come in sumptuous fabrics or rather jolly colours, but these bags always have a very ‘briefcasey’ attitude about them.
I love the colour palette. The Apple Green is inspired by a vintage bag from Portobello that I love and found really easy to wear with everything, even though it’s this intense, quite ‘off’ shade. The Dark Chocolate suede is also inspired by a vintage bag which I found in New York. I chose the Denim Blue because it’s quite ’70s and the shiny croc because I thought it looked masculine and quite ‘biz’.
First and foremost, the capsule is incredibly practical. The Big Guy was built to hold a lot of stuff, it’s designed to be carried around all day. The Little Guy is a more elegant, slimline bag for evening. - Alexa Chung

In a nod to their shared history, she also took inspiration  from the 2010 Alexa. One of the most covetable bags of a  generation, the Alexa went on to win over new fans around  the globe when it was relaunched in 2020.  

Taking their cue from vintage satchels as well as the  Elkington briefcase that inspired the original Alexa, the  Big Guy and Little Guy feature chain straps and a boxy,  streamlined silhouette. The colour palette ranges from  classic, earthy shades (Black, Dark Chocolate, Tan) to peppy,  optimistic tones (Apple Green, Denim Blue). Materials  include glossy crocodile-effect patent leather, sumptuous  velvet and suede. Launching alongside the line-up is an edit  of complementary Alexa bags, which are released in the  same colour palette.  

The collection also chimes with Mulberry’s ongoing com mitment to sustainability and responsible manufacturing.  The bags are crafted from materials that are sourced  from environmentally rated tanneries, made in Mulberry’s  carbon neutral Somerset factories and intended to be loved  and worn forever.

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