#WITHAMSCHELA
The start of a new year is upon us, and with it comes a moment of reflection for all that has been achieved in 2021. We are constantly moving forward, and the past year has held many exciting and momentous changes for us as we continue to grow as an affordable luxury, sustainable brand. With that said, we thought we’d share some of our most notable moments before we enter 2022 well rested and ready for another progressive year.
Women Supporting Women
On International Women’s Day in March, we featured in RISE magazine as ‘The Brand to Watch’, where our founder Keri Andriana spoke all things business, the brand and International Women’s Week.
Rebirth
In April, the world began to awaken post-lockdown, and we envisioned a utopia from dystopia through our Ophelia collection. The campaign starred the gorgeous Bristol songstress, Xyzelle, who debuted the Ophelia microsuede clutch in 5 colourways. This product launch saw an exciting end of an era, as it was the last genuine leather product to be created by us. We also gained our first online stockist with the global ethical retailer, Wolf & Badger!
Sustainable Roadmaps
June was a busy month for us; we gained PETA-Approved Vegan accreditation on all of our vegan products, had our first appearance at London Fashion Week with a Digital Profile, and, arguably the most important ethical milestone, joined the ‘race to zero’ by signing the SME Climate Hub pledge.
New Horizons
In July, we went international, gaining our first USA stockist in-store at Urbnique in LA, Beverly Shopping Centre. From LA to London, in August we became stocked in-store with Wolf & Badger at their London Flagship store in King’s Cross.
We continued our sustainable growth into August by joining Green Spark, whose forward-thinking initiative supports ethical and climate-driven projects around the world. Now with every website sale, we are either planting a tree or removing plastic from the ocean. So far, we have saved 175 Plastic bottles, planted 200 Trees, saved 1.2 Round trip flights from London to LA worth of Carbon, removed 7,000 Straws and 875 Disposable coffee cups worth of plastic from landfills, and had 0.3 Bathtubs of plastic bottles rescued from the sea.
In September, we got our first Canadian stockists, Allto, who are an incredible organisation that put 100% of profits towards projects which aid the planet & people.
Physical Event Debut
On September 17th, we held our first physical event as part of the City Wide Celebration, hosted by the British Fashion Council. Our New Collection Preview was located at Wolf & Badger’s flagship store in London, and presented our gorgeous new sustainable and eco-friendly packaging, along with our Thais Vegan Croc Medium tote collection. The preview coincided with our second LFW Digital Profile, where we launched the new Thais Medium tote collection, and presented a talk panel In Conversation with Amschela: The Fearless Transition to Sustainable Luxury.
Celebrations & Jubilations
October also brought celebrations, as we attended the NSMA Awards, of which Amschela was an Official Sponsor, specifically of the ‘Influential Musician of The Year Across Social Media’. We were happy to congratulate the much-deserved winner, Big Narstie.
Our Amschela ride or die Naomi Isted attended too, and won the ‘Home & Lifestyle Influence of The Year’ award, all whilst effortlessly rocking her Amschela clutch.
In the December/January 2022 issue of HELLO Magazines fashion publication, we had a very exciting feature that showcased our Thais Vegan Medium Tote bag in Emerald Iris.
On the Big Screen
A dream of ours came true when Amschela handbags had their first product placement in the thought-provoking movie, On The Other Foot. The highly anticipated premiere took place on 29th November 2021 at O2, London, hosted by TV Personality Vanessa Feltz and Ben Ofoedu, and was attended by Amschela CEO, Keri Andriana. A very exciting milestone for us as a brand, and we hope to see more film features from Amschela in the future.
We’ve rounded off this year with the Bristol Live Business awards, where we came in as finalists for the IAMBOB award, championing the success of Britain’s black businesses. The award goes to an individual or business that has demonstrated a real spirit for entrepreneurship and innovation, and has shown determination and concerted planning to achieve further success for their business.
We have had such a great year, and we have some very exciting things in store for 2022, which we can’t wait to announce. We want to thank our amazing Amschela community for all the support and love, we feel so blessed. We hope this new year brings you all much joy and prosperity.
See you in 2022!
Written by Emily Mortimore
