Charlotte's Personal New Year Letter
Hello,
And Happy 2025!
I feel it has a nice ring to it, don't you?
I wanted to personally send my New Year wishes to you and fill you in on what you can expect from Charlotte Elizabeth this year.
I can't quite believe that next year will mark our 10th year trading and my 12th year of creating and building the brand. I remember when I was just beginning, and thinking, what an extraordinary accomplishment it'll be to reach a decade of trading, and now it is almost here.
For our 9th year of operating this year, I want to re-connect more with you and fill you in on the behind the scenes, starting today!
We had been working with a truly wonderful producer in Spain since 2018, but the last few years have proved tough in a rising cost in materials (one material tripling in price in the space of just a few months), a limit to sampling and growing order quantities for production, along with the challenges we have greeted in improving our goods into the UK and it simply was not feasible for us to continue on this route if we wanted to keep operating. It was a sad departure but one which we are open to if things become accommodating in the future once more.
Last year saw us return back to our first ever manufacturers, a family-owned factory based in Somerset, UK, a move which I am immensely proud of. It has been a tough few years particularly for our industry, so I am delighted to be supporting our producers once again, after working with them in our first year of Charlotte Elizabeth, 2016.
Just before Christmas, I collected a fresh batch of Original Bloomsbury's, which I must say were the best we've had made yet. The quality is truly exceptional and I am so grateful for the wonderful team at Somerset Stitching Co for making it happen in time for Christmas. We do have a small number of Original Bloomsbury's left (which are currently part of our Winter Sale pricing!) so I do recommend ordering before they're gone.
Unfortunately, we did greet some challenges in moving our production back to the UK and we discovered that some of our styles simply could not be produced here due to a lack of machinery in the UK. This of course is something we explored in fixing, but it is a huge financial investment which we cannot encounter alone. We would like to be part of the change of the production capabilities in British leather goods manufacturing for the future and will of course keep you updated on in due course on this.
To enable us to produce stock which simply cannot be made in the UK, we have began working with a truly fantastic and highly-esteemed producer based in India. They are a truly wonderful team of craftspeople who importantly align on our values, produce truly exceptional products with fair pricing and practices.
And all of this production chat leads to something I'm very excited about… styles that I've been working on for two years are launching imminently! They are wonderful additions to our existing styles, I really do hope that you fall for them as much as I have.
The four new handbag additions launching this month is just the beginning of a really exciting chapter for us of new launches and growing our collections. As explained, sampling, production and importing our goods have proved very challenging these past years for us, so to finally be able to move forward with our business feels incredibly powerful and exciting.
The start of 2024 was personally very tough for myself and my family, as we lost a member who had a significant effect on all of our lives. We said goodbye to Elizabeth, my grandmother who I named Charlotte Elizabeth partly after and who's 50's fashion inspired me to design the handbags that I create. It has been a huge loss and one that I am still working through, but I must say that in my Grandmother's loss, I have found even more strength to keep going with part of her legacy.
And with that, I am hoping for all of us to have a very happy and healthy 2025, truly.
Thank you for taking the moments to not only read this amongst your day, but also, for the many other moments where you have supported us along the way. Every like, every opened newsletter, every email hello and every order truly does have such a huge effect on a business like mine. So thank you for choosing to keep helping us grow.
I am so grateful for your support and hope you are excited for our new launches. Keep an eye out on our newsletter and on our Instagram for launch updates.
With Gratitude,
Charlotte x
