HelpingHandbags
The BAG Ladies
Last September, the Tabitha was just a fantasy, the chatter of a group of mums waiting for our children at the school gate. Eight months later, we have our first sample in hand and some well known retailers expressing interest in facilitating sales!!
The sole reason for this amazing progress is the caring and generosity of an extremely talented group of women, affectionately known as the Bag Ladies.
Melora Johnson
Melora is the heart and soul of the Helping Handbags TABITHA project. Shocked into action by a Grazia article about the plight of children in Bulgaria’s social care homes, she tracked down the charities and journalists to find out how she could make a difference. After visiting Bulgaria, where her mother and grandmother immigrated from, she has raised over £10,000 and set a mission to create a long lasting fundraising project with impact.
Her love of fashion, her deep desire to help children, and her ability to motivate and inspire a broad range of people with diverse backgrounds has enabled this project to come to life.
Melora is originally from Boston, but now resides in southwest London with husband and three sons.
+44 (0) 208 288 8009 / +44 (0) 7595526890
Carrie bienkowski
Carrie brings high level strategy, brand and go-to-marketing planning to the Helping Handbag initiative, based on her decade long career in brand management at Proctor and Gamble.
Carrie has long been passionate about social issues and is now exclusively focused on cause marketing and corporate responsibility programs.
Carrie is originally from northern California, she has lived and worked in Europe for 11 years. She currently resides in West London with her husband and three daughters.
+44 (0) 208 408 0840 / +44 (0) 7810564885
emma ganderton
iEmma is an experienced fashion and accessories designer who has led the creative and design (as well as production) aspects of the TABITHA. She studied fashion Design at Kingston University from where she was recruited by Alberta Feretti to work in Italy for her first job.
Currently head of accessories design and buying for Jigsaw, Emma has also designed for other London- based designers such as Paul Smith and Alice Temperley to name a few.
Emma lives in North London with her architect husband and three legged cat “Tripod”.
lucinda ganderton
Lucinda is a writer and designer who has contributed a wealth of creative talent to the Helping Handbags project. She is the sister of Emma Ganderton with whom she has worked on design projects since childhood, taking inspiration from their art teaching mother and dressmaking grandmother.
Lucinda is the author of some 20 + books on textiles, design and decoration. She is currently collaborating with Cath Kidston on a book to be published in summer ’09.
She lives in Richmond with her husband, son and Leo the cat.
Other Key Contributors
Sim Scavazza
With 20 years in the fashion industry, Sim helps ensure Helping Handbags is at the forefront of fashion and retail trends.
She lives in London with her husband and twin girls.
Peachpink
The outstanding agents dealing with the manufacturer, has very generously donated 500 printed dust bags. So your Tabitha will arrive in a Helping Handbags dust bag at no extra cost to you -thank you helen and vanessa!!!
