Romantic details and playful accents abound in the elegant Edinburgh home of the cult accessories designer Leeanne Hundleby
‘WE LIVE IN THE CENTRE OF EDINBURGH, BUT our home is an oasis – you wouldn’t know it was here,’ says Leeanne Hundleby, one half of the husband-and-wife team behind the luxury Scottish accessories brand Strathberry. It’s true: one could easily walk straight past their pale-stone, 19thcentury house, hidden behind wooden gates that lead to an expansive garden, which is currently coated in midwinter frost.
Two stone labradors stand sentinel either side of the front door, both wearing tartan Strathberry collars. ‘They’re a bit faded now,’ says Hundleby of their finery, ‘but I don’t want to take them off – they’re one of the first products we ever made.’ Hundleby and her husband Guy have just celebrated a decade since the brand’s launch. In that time, its expertly crafted leather handbags and cashmere knits have garnered legions of fans, from members of the Royal Family to Hollywood stars including Margot Robbie and Katie Holmes.
When the couple, both 51, met at the wedding of mutual friends in 1998, they were working in different industries – she for Scottish Power and he running an ethicalproduction giftware company. But as their family grew to include four children (two boys and two girls), they began to seek more flexibility in their working lives. ‘When I was pregnant with our youngest, we went to Xàbia in Spain for three months during my maternity leave,’ Hundleby recalls. ‘On Saturday nights, we would visit the market stalls, which sold the most incredible wallets, purses and bags.’ Three months turned into almost two years while the pair explored the region’s leather workshops.
They returned to Edinburgh in 2011 and hatched a plan that would bring together artisanal Spanish craftsmanship with their Scottish values of ‘creativity, passion and ambition’. Collaborating with makers in Ubrique, southern Spain, who also supply fashion houses such as Carolina Herrera and Loewe, the duo produced their first design in 2013: the Midi Tote. Inspired by a music bag they found in a vintage shop, it featured the distinctive metal hardware that has become Strathberry’s signature.
Four years later, this was the piece that propelled the brand to stratospheric popularity when the Duchess of Sussex carried it on a royal walkabout in Nottingham. ‘The stars aligned – it was quite incredible,’ says Hundleby of the moment. ‘We were already building momentum, but that enabled us to fast-tr
