If you live in the United States there is a good chance that you will not be too familiar with Radley Bags, though if you live over the water in the UK, and you love your handbags, you will probably own one. In the UK, Radley are really taking the handbag market by storm, and they are slowly making their way over to the US market, if you are on the lookout for one then your best bet is to have a look in Bloomingdales or a Lord And Taylor store, these places are some of the few that stock Radley bags, though you might be lucky and find some smaller independent stores that stock them too.
Radley were founded in the UK in 1998, they are known for their lovely little Scottie dog logo. They now have their headquarters in London, England but as I have said they are starting to get into the US market, so im sure they will be expanding their business over to the States in the near future.
Radley bags are known for their big bold colors and interesting designs, they treat every bag as if it were a piece of art. Their bags are there to make a statement about the owner and also in bid to bring a bit of fun into everyones daily lives. They also pride themselves in being as unique as possible, they live by the motto “better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation” which says a lot about them.
Radley bags are all creative but without being over the top and ridiculous looking, they don’t make bags just to try and be wacky and out there, like a lot of fashion designers are trying to do these days, just so people notice them. Radley are not going to make bags just because they sell, or just because “fashion” decides something looks great (as we know most of the time fashion has it head buried in a bucket of sand, with no grip on reality), they only make bags that they feel passionate about and that “woman can fall in love with”. They also strive to make the best quality handbags they can while still maintaining affordability, all of their bags are hand-crafted using only the finest materials on offer.
How To Stop A Fake Radley Bag
Sadly, because of how popular the Radley handbag has become people are now starting to try and sell unwitting buyers fake bags. To avoid buying a fake there are some things for you to look out for. Before we talk about the signs on the bags, you can take a visit to the Radley site and have a look at their list of approved dealers, if you buy from these dealers you wont be getting a fake bag. If you are going to buy cheap Radley bags from somewhere else, a website, auction site or from a friend, for example, then there are some things that have been consistently wrong with the fakes. If you have a look at the little Scottie dog tag that should be on every bag, there should be no name written on it, if you see “Radley” written on it then its a fake. You should only see the Radley name on the cardboard tag on the outside of the bag. Also, every bag that Radley sells should have a leather care pack inside it, if it doesn’t have this pack and its a new bag, then the chances are that its an imitation.
Radley pride themselves on making affordable designer bags, though this doesn’t mean that they are particularly cheap, they are on a similar level to Coach Bags in the USA, their handbags usually sell for between $175 to $400, this isn’t too expensive when you consider that these are hand made, designer handbags, made using superior materials. It looks fairly decent to me.
To finish off I’ll state the Radley mission statement which sums it all up -
“To create exciting, unusual, high quality products that woman love and can afford to own.”
