Kitty's new Mulberry Bayswater

I've been lusting after a Mulberry Bayswater for a while now. I adore the classic shape, the practicality, the size...

Mr Kitty had offered to buy me a Mulberry bag when we were in the UK as a gift - he's a very generous man! As such I did a lot of research before heading overseas to try and narrow down the selection.

I did see this one on the Mulberry Website a while ago but I already have a big Furla leopard bag and the price was just a little out of my league (mmm.... perhaps a lot outside of the ballpark, actually) and what I really needed was a good quality everyday black handbag. I contemplated getting a patent leather Bayswater (it had silver hardware which is more "me" than the standard bronze) but it looked a bit more formal and I wanted to be able to use this bag for everything - casual, work... But I didn't think the patent would work as well for casual.

We visited a couple of the Mulberry stores in London to do some more research and after quite a bit of deliberation and "testing" I decided on the Mulberry Bayswater in Black Natural Leather. It was so soft and beautiful but hardy enough to withstand the rigours of Kitty's day to day life: it ultimately ticked all the boxes and seeing as this one was Mr Kitty's treat I didn't want to overspend. I did toy with the idea of buying one in plum which I saw in Harrods but after much deliberation I finally decided that I wouldn't get the use out of it to warrant the cost. Twas uber pretty though.

The rather battered Mulberry Bag - all the way home from London!

After one last look at the Mulberry store at Bicester (where they didn't have anything in the Bayswater range, but I thought I would check, trying to embrace thrift more) I decided to take advantage of one of Heathrow Airport's fabulous services: you can email them through their Reserve and Collect system and order goods for collection the day you leave. You don't have to deal with multiple retailers if you have a few things you want and if they don't have your item in stock, they will order it in for you and you are guaranteed to get the item you want at the duty free price.

The bag in its dust bag!

A few short emails later I had reserved the bag at the duty free price. The added advantage of using this service is that you don't have to cart your shopping all the way around the UK with you if you are on holidays. I wish more airports would have this service and also the diverse number of wonderful shops that Heathrow actually has!

My precious!!

But I digress. The morning we flew out, we checked in for our flight, went through immigration and rocked up to the Mulberry store where my bag was waiting especially for me. We saved approximately 95 pounds by buying it duty free, but what was more important was the hassle we saved. It was so easy and convenient and because I already had a lot of stuff I had bought I didn't have to haul another thing around for 2 weeks while we were travelling. I'd definitely do it again.

Inside of the bag

And just because I couldn't resist, when we got to Hong Kong, I bought this little beauty!


The plaque says "We believe in Tea and Cake". Damn straight we do!



So that's the story of Miss Kitty's favourite purchase for this overseas trip. Stay tuned for the next few posts on other things she purchased!

Kitty