What to Watch: Luella’s Lure

London — As London’s unofficial queen of cool, designer Luella Bartley can afford to think big, which she does. With the first Luella flagship set to open in London next year, Bartley sees an entire Luella empire within her reach, emulating those of Biba and her fashion icon, Mary Quant.

“I knew from the very beginning that I wanted Luella to be a brand with the whole lot: cosmetics, clothes, shoes and tights, etc. It was never just going to be about a really great silhouette, it was going to be a story, the whole package,” explained Bartley in her East London studio, a former classroom within an unused schoolhouse. “Luckily, the label’s thought of as cool and people want to buy into the image. There are so many brilliant ready-to-wear designers in London, but very few brands.”

Bartley has no doubt, though, that for now, it’s her bags that drive the business.

“This season, we’ve sold 2,000 pieces of clothing and 30,000 bags,” she said, adding that 70 to 80 percent of the business comes from the U.S., where the label is sold in Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York.

“For the last two seasons, our sales projections have been mainly focused on the U.S. and U.K. markets,” said a spokeswoman for VSQ Distribution Ltd., a division of Christina Ong’s Club 21, which has been the global licensee and distributor of Luella accessories and women’s wear since fall 2003. The spokeswoman added that the Luella accessories business has tripled each season at specialty stores and experienced double-digit growth at department stores.

Sources estimate the company’s annual sales to be about $21.8 million. The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on this figure.

The best-selling style is the Gisele, a young, Birkin-style bag now synonymous with the Luella label that wholesales for $358. With its cross harness-straps and signature love-heart trinkets, the Gisele launched for fall 2002 as a one-off design for the British accessories label Mulberry.

“It obviously carried us as well as the association with Mulberry,” said Bartley, who launched her ready-to-wear collection in fall 1999. “It’s our classic style, but we change it a lot, sometimes adding appliqué, brocade or, as for spring, snakeskin and the apple design.”

The label’s modern flair caught the attention of Robert Burke, vice president and senior fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. “No one ever came onto our fashion scene as strongly as Luella did, and she’s undoubtedly one of our strongest British labels,” Burke said in an interview. “When we picked her up, she definitely started the British trend for us, with designs that were fresh with a very interesting appeal, certainly a classic shape but with hardware and detailing.”

The latest styles for spring include tan minirucksacks, Carmen biker bags and canvas holdalls in the spring collection’s apple, snakeskin and crocodile-skin prints. “Our customer’s appetite for newness and novelty is extremely high, and Luella’s always adding new colors and materials,” Burke said.

This dramatically more sophisticated style is perhaps because of the label’s new global expansion. “For spring 2005, we have mainly been concentrating on Europe where we will be in all the top specialty stores in Italy, such as Corso Como Milano, Biffi, Gio Moretti and Luisa Via Roma,” said the Club 21 spokeswoman, adding that expansion also looks set for Asia. “We are currently experiencing a lot of interest from some large companies regarding a potential distribution partner for Japan, and we are now close to signing. We have experienced interest from parties in Korea and Hong Kong wanting to open a shop-in-shop concept in department stores, but at the same time, we’re looking to choose the right partner.”

As for Bartley, she isn’t quite ready to grow up. “At the end of the day, I still think I’m a little girl that wants to make handbags.”