About Anya
Dame Anya Hindmarch founded her business in London in 1987 and it has since grown into a global brand. Today, it is as known for its luxury, organisation-obsessed accessories as it is for its groundbreaking work in sustainability and its playful experiential retail concepts. Creativity, modern craftsmanship and personalisation sit at the heart of everything Anya Hindmarch does. Alongside the beautiful seasonal collections which celebrate leather work and impeccable design, the Anya Hindmarch brand includes Anya Hindmarch Bespoke – a line up of beautifully crafted, personalisable designs; the Labelled collection, which grew from Anya’s obsession with organisation and love of labelling – each piece is designed for a specific purpose; ANYA LIFE, the brands playful home and lifestyle collection, a line up of designs to animate your space; and Anya Hindmarch food, delicious and delectable fare with an Anya twist. In November 2023, the brand released a sell out knitwear collection in collaboration with Uniqlo.
The brand pioneered the modern obsession with personalisation starting in 2001 with the launch of a bag featuring customers’ photographs. Be A Bag was revived and re-imagined in 2021 – a time when cherishing special moments felt more important than ever. With Anya Hindmarch Bespoke, customers can have drawings or messages in their own handwriting embossed by in-store craftsmen. From adding initials to a weekend bag to an embroidered monogram on a clutch, countless pieces can be personalised. All of this is part of an ongoing commitment to reconnect the craftsman and the customer: each bespoke piece is – as Anya says – about ‘having your name on something, rather than mine’.
Anya Hindmarch is committed to creating responsibly, and constantly strives to innovate to reduce its impact on the earth, while also using its platform to drive education and discussion around sustainability. Testament to this are projects such as I Am A Plastic Bag, launched in 2020 to tackle post-consumer waste, with each bag crafted from 32 half-litre recycled plastic bottles. This was the result of a two-year project, building on 2007’s I’m A Plastic Bag, which ignited the debate around the use of plastic bags and contributed to the decision to charge for plastic bags in the UK. In 2021, the brand went a step further, launching The Universal Bag, a unique collaboration with supermarkets to rethink the reusable shopping bag, and Return to Nature, a collection of bags which are intended to biodegrade at the end of their useful life, thanks to some pioneering leather tanning and finishing techniques. The brand was the winner of the Luxury Brand category at Marie Claire’s Sustainability Awards 2024. The work around sustainability continues, paying heed to the mantra, ‘progress, not perfection.’
The Village on Pont Street in London’s Chelsea, opened in 2021, is a community of neighbouring stores and a cafe. Ever-evolving, it centres around the Village Hall, which hosts innovative concepts, collaborations and exhibitions, all of which are amplified digitally. It is a place for the brand to connect with its customers, engage with projects it cares about and invite in collaborators. So far, The Village Hall has played host to concepts that include a fashion fruit and veg store, a creative Ice Cream Project and a Christmas grotto for 2500 children. At the Anya Cafe, a selection of drinks, lunch, cakes and afternoon tea are served with a twist of the brand’s trademark humour.
A passionate advocate of British design and arts. Anya is a trustee of the Tate, trustee of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and an Emeritus trustee of both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Design Museum. From September 2023 until August 2024, she was an advisor to The Board of Trade. In 2024, Anya Hindmarch was awarded a damehood in the Kings Birthday Honours, for her services to fashion and business, following her 2017 CBE. She and her brand have received several notable industry awards including a British Fashion Award, and a Marie Claire sustainability award. In 2021, Anya published her first book, the Sunday Times bestseller ‘If In Doubt Wash Your Hair’.