Michelle McDonaghon how a marketing executive designed a new life for herself and her partner
ANGELA HOPE says the bags she creates are a metaphor for her life. With their pretty velvet ribbons and dainty ties instead of buttons and zips and their lavender lining, her bags are about "slowing down and taking time".
The Bristol native left the fast-paced world of marketing and corporate fundraising eight years ago to move to rural Ireland with her partner where she has gone back to her roots as a designer.
With the huge growth in the popularity of handbags as a fashion accessory for women, Hope decided to set up her own business as a manufacturer and supplier of limited edition contemporary handbags.
"From living in a UK city, commuting to London weekly and working in marketing, it was great to move to rural Ireland and work as a designer again. I have no family connections with the West but I think it would be impossible to afford the equivalent in terms of property in Bristol or elsewhere in England. Everything costs more in the UK."
After graduating with a degree in fashion textiles from the University of Manchester, Hope went straight into designing swimwear and lingerie for companies such as Marks & Spencer and Next. She also started a business with another designer in Bristol and ran design projects for Barnardos in Bristol and Africa.
She then decided to retrain in marketing and spent some time working as a corporate fund-raiser and market researcher for some of the bigger charities in the UK.
She explains: "It had been a very tough struggle designing and working for myself and I felt the need to be secure for a while and to be paid a salary. I thought marketing might have been the direction for me, but it wasn't at all and, after a while, I felt I needed to get back into design."
At around the same time, Hope had been coming over to Ireland frequently where she was helping a friend to renovate her grandmother's cottage in Mayo. She enjoyed the experience so much that she decided to take on the project of renovating an old stone cottage in the same area with her partner, Martin, in 2000.
"I had taken a month off to work on the cottage but after a few weeks here, we decided that's it, we're staying. I went back to the UK and resigned from the marketing company where I was working. We both moved over and sold our house in England. I had a bit of freelance work with the company after I left, but I was getting less and less as the months went by and I knew I had to set up something to start my new life."
Hope saw an opportunity to move back into design but knew she did not want to get back into clothing or lingerie. A friend in London suggested she start designing handbags and although the idea did not really appeal to Hope at first, she made a bag for her friend and it took off from there.
"The cottage was quite cold and I had noticed there were lots of lovely traditional mills around. I started buying blankets because they made cosy curtains and rugs for sitting in front of the fire.
"I made my first bag out of the scraps of material that were left over and since then, all my bags have been in wool and tweed blanket fabrics. They are all lined either with velvet or cord so they are nice and soft when you put your hand inside and they have dried Irish lavender in the lining," she says.
The company she formed last year with designer Danielle Benson, called Hope and Benson, is now supplying more than 170 shops in the UK, Ireland, Europe and Japan. Hope is also about to relaunch her own brand of Angela Hope bags, all made from Irish blanket fabrics.
Her partner, Martin, had been working as a manager at Waterstones in Bristol before they moved to Ireland but had always had a desire to work with wood. He has now totally changed direction and started a successful hand-built kitchen business.
Six years ago, the couple moved to Leitrim where they bought another run-down cottage and renovated it. Although the cottage is tiny with only three rooms and a minuscule bathroom, there is plenty of space outside. A former milk parlour has been converted into a studio for Hope while her partner has a big wooden shed for his furniture production.
She remarks: "It was a struggle at the beginning when we were trying to do up the cottage and start up our businesses, but we are both making a living now. It has all been worth it. We work very hard but we enjoy it and we like the freedom of our lifestyle. We can take a day off if the weather is really nice. I think it's a much healthier way to live."
Living close to Knock Airport means that Hope can travel back to England regularly to see family and friends and for business, and people can visit her in her rural idyll. Among the advantages of living in Leitrim for her are less commuting times, cheaper living costs, cheaper house prices, more family time and less stress.
Apart from family and friends, she says she doesn't miss England at all as she finds it too busy and stressful.
"We live a fairly basic lifestyle and one of the benefits of living somewhere quite remote is that we are not tempted by shops, wine bars and cafes. We had the opposite life when we were in England. Luckily, Martin is a fantastic cook and we enjoy socialising at home. We have made friends here and have just started getting into growing vegetables and gardening. It's nice just to walk the dog and potter around the garden."