She is one of the UK\u2019s fastest-growing and most admired luxury handbag brand owners.<\/p>\n
But her success is even more remarkable as Natalie Dennis, 47, overcame a crippling disability to become a leading designer available in Harrods, despite turning down job offers from the likes of Alexander McQueen, Mulberry, Burberry and Gucci.<\/p>\n
For all her childhood, she struggled with extreme dyslexia \u2013 being unable to even read the alphabet.<\/p>\n
The struggling student, from Bratton Fleming in Devon, left school with just one GCSE in art and was finally diagnosed at the age of 18.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt was in primary school that I started to realise I was different. I couldn\u2019t read the alphabet and I would get a ruler across my hand. I started to fall behind quite quickly in my learning and couldn\u2019t really make sense of any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew dyslexia was a thing, but in rural places like that, it just wasn\u2019t something that was even talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty miserable being in the bottom sets for everything, and I ended up leaving school with only one GCSE, which was an A in art.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope these days there is much more support for young children like me and by the time I got to university, I had a scribe for my exams which helped immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her academic battles, Natalie\u2019s creative flair was already alive.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI started designing handbags at only three or four years old when I would make clothes and little handbags for my Barbie dolls. I would go to my friends\u2019 houses who would have lots more toys than me, because we didn\u2019t have much money, and I would play with all their toys and dolls and then come home and recreate them all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would make these little bags out of cardboard, paper, and scraps of fabric. I would also make little mini patterns myself. I didn\u2019t realise then, but now looking back, that is where my pattern skills came in to be able to make handbags.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained: \u201cAs I only had one GCSE it was proving challenging to get into university, I had to sit at North Devon College for three years, studying for a National Diploma, all the different areas of art, which looking back was probably a good thing because I got longer than everybody else who went straight onto their university course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Maidenhead College, which is now part of Reading University where I studied for two years for a Higher National Diploma in fashion clothing. I went on to study clothing because there were no other courses that interested me, even though I knew I didn\u2019t want to do clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I finished that course, I won first place in a competition by Wayne Hemingway who owned \u2018Red or Dead\u2019, which was massive at the time. Handbags weren\u2019t really a thing at the time, and I pointed out to Wayne that bags were going to be massive. I even produced a range of bags for the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWayne came from a market stall himself and then created a runway sensation. At the end of the project, he said I must continue and he told me to go and apply to Cordwainers.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was there that she met fashion designer and lecturer, Darla Jane Gilroy, who managed to help get Natalie\u2019s dyslexia diagnosed properly at the age of 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put a few students through doing bags, but Cordwainers didn\u2019t really have a proper course, so they let me structure the course how I wanted. I spent two years there, which were the best two years of my life. It was at this time I also won a prize from Gina shoes and Hush Puppies, yet my main focus always lay with handbags.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my time as a student, I was seeing my work displayed at fashion shows which only furthered my aspirations that one day it would be my own brand on that runway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Successfully achieving a 2.1, Natalie surprised her tutors by using an unusual revision technique.<\/p>\n
She revealed: \u201cI managed to overcome my dyslexia challenges by being creative. I got people to do stuff for me, I recorded all my lessons and lectures. One of my lecturers knew it was pointless me going to lessons as I couldn\u2019t write to take down notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe night before the exam, I had a whole term of lessons that I didn\u2019t attend. She gave me a recording and I played it through the night. I got up the next day and I got the second highest score ever in the test without attending any of the classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy last college project was for a company called Tula which was one of the largest in Europe for handbags at the time, and I also helped them develop Radley\u2019s first range. At the end of the course I was offered a position with Alexander McQueen, which my university turned down.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing her degree at university, Natalie started at Dollargrand where she soon became head of design for two years. It was during this time she then put her work out to see if other brands would be interested.<\/p>\n
She revealed: \u201cI had people like Gucci, Burberry and Mulberry ringing me up daily to ask for an interview, but I turned them all down because one day I wanted to have my own luxury brand, but I knew if I worked for someone else, I would give all my own style away, so I refused.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was also offered a job at Exeter University teaching handbags, but I also turned this down, in pursuit of following my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
She first started selling her own handbags at London\u2019s Portobello Market selling homemade bags.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started cutting up pairs of jeans and leather jackets that my Mum got at car boot sales and started making little bags. Suddenly I was selling hundreds a week. Within two or three months, we were stocked in Topshop. Back then it was just about making stuff as cheap as I could. I found that I could just make stuff out of old stuff lying around anyway. We were selling hundreds a week. I think they call it upcycling now.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Natalie was always thinking bigger.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI started to think about how I was going to get these bags produced by others than me. I teamed up with somebody I met at university who is from India, Calcutta, and I went out to India \u2013 because they didn\u2019t know how to make bags and wallets. So, I sat with a team of about 20 guys and trained them on how to make bag patterns and how to be able to make these bags.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin 12 months, we were selling bags at Ted Baker, Faith, Country Casuals, Austin Reed, you name it. I was quickly producing 15,000 units a month for those brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite her success and money pouring in Natalie wasn\u2019t fulfilled.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI got fed up with that. Although I was making lots of money, I realised it wasn\u2019t really about design, it was about taking trends, looking at the market, and then feeding into each of those brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to make timeless designs that people wanted to purchase for the aesthetics and because it makes them feel good, instead of merely keeping up with fast fashion trends. It wasn\u2019t what I wanted to do and the market for bags at that point had grown massively and the big brands were now dominating the handbags.\u201d<\/p>\n
After watching the market trends change within the industry, Natalie saw an opening for smaller, bespoke, unknown brands.<\/p>\n
She explained: \u201cIt was time for me to just sit out and wait for a moment of change. I realised in 2010 that the market started to change as brands were coming in that had never been heard before.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2018, Natalie took the plunge and invested her time into her own brand.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt was time for me to start thinking about what I was going to do and how I was going to eventually unfold my story, that is where we are now, we started just before lockdown. In 2018 I travelled around the world looking at manufacturing in Portugal, Spain, China, and everywhere. I went to over 100 factories.\u201d<\/p>\n
After settling for a factory in Florence, and finally having a team together. Natalie got to work on her new design.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI worked with a guy who is English, much of my team are around retirement age. My handbags, based on curves and timelessness, are driven by my love for the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI take all my inspiration from nature, architecture, and everything around you \u2013 which is what the signature curve is based on. My college project was in fact the large signature curve, I did that bag back in the year 1999.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bag is based on architecture and designs seen in museums, that stood the test of time and that people aesthetically appreciate. I took all those influences along with nature and blended them together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent a lot of time by the sea, the waves and patterns on the shore massively influence me. I found 3D structures within nature fascinating. My fascination with the curve I didn\u2019t know at the time had a name. The Golden Ratio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven months since the launch her bags are already stocked by MywardrobeHQ, the official Harrods rental partner as well as in Pickett, Fashwire, CultMia, Wolf and Badger and Not Just A Label.<\/p>\n
But with her international footprint growing fast Natalie, who puts sustainability at the heart of her business, has even bigger plans.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWe are now currently in the middle of designing a prototype which will be recycled leather, and we are going to do a vegan leather to come out in the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instagram:<\/strong> @nataliedennisuk<\/a> From Dyslexia to Designer Success She is one of the UK\u2019s fastest-growing and most admired luxury handbag brand owners. But her success is even more remarkable as Natalie Dennis, 47, overcame a crippling disability to become a leading designer available in Harrods, despite turning down job offers from the likes of Alexander McQueen, Mulberry, Burberry…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11443,16130,16112],"class_list":["post-103503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-couture","category-products-accessories","category-womens-fashion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWebsite:<\/strong> Natalie Dennis<\/a>
\nEmail:<\/strong> info@nataliedennis.co.uk<\/a>
\nPhone:<\/strong> 07894 211417<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"