HACKNEY ROAD has long been known for furniture and leather goods, so when Dalston-raised designer Eda Tayfur was creating a range of handbags, she set out to combine tradition and fashion in the launch.

Her marketing idea was to show a selection for a month at Long White Cloud, a café at the Shoreditch end of the long street.

Tayfur, pictured, above, in the café, told Loving Dalston: “A lot of people in fashion and media who live in the area come in here for food and coffee, and my creations will be right in front of them.”

Asked whether her company, Eda London, the brand she set up with her husband four years ago, had used a low-wage area country for manufacturing her creations, she said: “No. I’m a great believer in getting things made locally.

“I was born here, I studied in London [taking specialist fashion courses] and I like local quality.”

She described her bagmaker, Peter Sipiano, as one of Britain’s most experienced. Known for his teaching at Cordwainers, the legendary college now part of the London College of Fashion, he is also setting up a centre to continue the craft of handmaking bags.

Prices range from about £20 to £600, “but,” added Tayfur, “you can have the bag you like in another colour –  and that will obviously cost more.”

David Altheer 070514

* Long White Cloud, 151 Hackney Road E2 8JL (020 7033 4642). Good disabled access. The handbags were launched tonight, Wed 7 May 2014, and will be on show until early June. Raffle tickets to win the bag in the smaller picture cost £5. 

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