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Tola Adeagbo of Florian London on Handbag Designer 101 Podcast Every Tuesday




Emily Blumenthal

Host

00:00

Hi and welcome to the Handbag Designer 101 podcast with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, where we cover everything about handbags, from making, marketing, designing and talking to handbag designers and industry experts about what it takes to make a successful handbag. Welcome my dear sweet Tola Adeagbo from Florian London, creative director, founder, inspirer, everything amazing. Tola, welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

00:41

Thanks you for having me. Emily, Thank you so much for having me. I've had you a few times. Yes, you've had me a few times. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

00:50

Just to dive right in, considering Florian was a handbag awards winner, an audience fan favorite. You are clearly not from the United States. What's your story? Where'd you come from? Where were you born? All that good stuff? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

01:05

Currently I live in London, but I wasn't born in London, so I grew up in Lagos, nigeria. So I was born in Nigeria. I came to London when I was 11. So from 11 to now, not going to everybody by age, it's a big blur. It's a big blur, it's very precisely so. I spent most of my adult lives in the UK, in London. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

01:32

So you were born in Nigeria. You came here at 11. And that was the first time you were on an airplane and everything. Do you remember packing up and being told all right, that's it, sweet little Tola, we're getting out, we're going to London? And you were like wow, what's that going to be? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

01:49

Yeah, I think my dad had already moved to London, and my so did my mom. Actually, we were living with my grandmother, so it was so fair. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

01:56

So who flew you? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

01:56

over. I came with my mom, so my parents already had you know, they just came over to get me and my older sister, so it had an older sister already living in the UK that I've never met as well, so they were just bringing us to join them in the United Kingdom. So I think that was really the start. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

02:17

How long were you living with your grandma? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

02:23

So from about six I think. So I needed my grandma and my dad moved over to the, my dad moved over to London and my mom used to travel between London and the UK so my mom would go and come back or come back and I think when they got settled in the UK then they came to get me and my sister's also. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

02:46

Do you think, though, that experience of you know having your parents, not having your parents, like it, makes you grow up really fast, you know, like, even if you don't even realize, I mean, you accept it as normal. Like this is it? But not having your parents, and I'm sure your grandma, was a force to be reckoned with, but it's not easy. What? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

03:07

Yeah, generally we never felt like that because I think the African culture, the culture back home, was very family orientated, so it wasn't really a case of I think when you're thinking in the West, the world being with your grandma can be very isolated, but it wasn't like that. So I had my cousins right. This is, this was like a big family home, so we never really felt like we were missing our parents or to sleep. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

03:34

Can you imagine your girls being like we're good? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

03:38

You know what you know. I think when you live in London and you know you live in I don't know, it's very. I think, like I said, the culture is very different. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

03:47

So you're part of a community, so your family it's kind of extended, so your cousins, you know everybody's family, so everybody's like you know, it must have been isolating for you coming to London and then leaving all that, because here you are in this very homogenous community and now you're not. Now you're having to basically start all over. I'm sure you were pretty self conscious of your accent, how you looked, being thrown into a new place Now having to wear different uniform and you have a sibling. You said you'd never met, like wow. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

04:23

It's a lot I know. So glad you mentioned that Cause. When I I mean, like I said, grew up in Nigeria, I was very confident. I didn't really experience, I didn't really feel like I didn't feel this difference. I didn't really feel like, oh, my accent is different. I didn't really feel I was such a. Now I like to feel naive, and naive in a good way. Yeah, Naive, yeah, I'll come into London full of dreams, you know you were well, you were in a protected bubble, so it's fair. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

04:50

I don't think you should have. Yeah, you should apologize for being a child that felt safe enough to dream. I mean, that's what you want for your kids. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

04:57

Yeah, precisely yeah, and I'm so glad you mentioned that Cause. When I came to UK I experienced severe bullying and you know you mentioned exploring has been 10 years and I think the experience I had in secondary school in this country, especially being so confident and being so outspoken and coming to school and, you know, being laughed at for my accent, being laughed at because I was so bubbly, being laughed at because I was so full of confidence, and just learning that the bullying was really, you know, I might get just a little bit emotional thinking about tonight, especially because I have two daughters. You know people say that I smell because I'm from Africa. I smell some African it was. It was really horrendous when I came then. I mean things have changed now, but it was severe bully and not just it wasn't, it was really bad. 

05:46

And I think when I look back at that little girl and I look back at the reason why you know, running a brand is a roller coaster of different emotions it's. You're trying to hang in there, you're trying to be resilient, but I think the easiest thing for you to do is to just quit and get a nine to five. And I think, looking at that little girl and looking at the way of Fran Florent and just holding on and knowing that very soon, this brand that I've bought so much passion, so much of myself into would eventually get it stuck Precisely so, you know, at which I have, you know, throwing up and being a London resident, but it was never. You know, it wasn't easy. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

06:31

I mean it's so funny because you know, I know so many people like you, and I'm not minimizing you or your story, but you know there's so many people who you have to know how to weather the storms. You have to know how to be resilient, how to be scrappy and how to just keep pushing forward. And it's funny that you know the mindset. It's like you're growing up in a very risk averse environment and home because your family being immigrants and so forth. There's a book you have to follow, there's rules to be followed, there's expectations. However, in order to succeed, you have to bend all those rules in order to get around what's expected right. 

07:12

So it's kind of like running a business you dive in and most of it's naivete, most of it's ignorance, because you don't know what the hell you're doing, let alone a handbag brand right, which you know. Let's get a little bit into it. So, after you finished high school or sixth form or whatever you people call it, with your lovely levels, o levels, q levels, p levels, whatever I just figured it all the levels out, but within the UK did you go to university after? And then what did you do after? Because I'm sure, as an immigrant child, the expectations were very high yeah. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

07:50

I mean, I was very good at math and also very artistic, so a lot of, like I said, I was very bullied but I never really stopped coming to it, so I used to do a lot of them. I found my escape through design. I used to do a lot of paintings. I was very artistic and I remember that Did you come home and paint, kind of thing. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

08:11

Yeah, I did. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

08:13

I stayed after school painting and I used to paint all the time. And when it was time for me to go to university, I mean for my A levels, which is what you do D levels are first yeah, a levels and A universities. So you start, yeah For you to your A levels. And I did business studies, it and art and design. I'm always sneaking it in Because, like I said with immigrant parents, yeah, you can't do that. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

08:40

You can't do that Okay. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

08:43

She's doing it because you know she's doing. She's doing economics and she's in business. Yeah, and, by the way, here's some pretty pictures she's painted, by the way, exactly. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

08:51

Yeah, you know she's a. This is definitely little of the. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

08:53

You know I've got a bit of an hour into university. It was like a like what do I do now? I really wanted to study fashion design, but I could not for the life of me. Really, that to my parents, like I said, with with our culture, it's very you can't just go. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm doing and this is final. No, you're parents are very much part of your lives, and I was in 18 years so I studied finance at university, yeah, at university. So I graduated in fair with a you know two, one which is like first class in this two one and it so on and so forth, and I started working in the city as an analyst. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

09:33

For the city, for people don't know. It's the wall street of one in a central area. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

09:38

I was working in the bank. I was working in a banking sector. Can you imagine that? 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

09:43

now. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

09:45

I could not. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

09:46

A little taller in a bank, I was, I was. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

09:51

Which I can't even imagine it now. But you know, I was working in the bank, I was an analyst, you know nine to five going to, you know, just boring. Well, I don't mean to say it's boring for everybody. No, no, no, no. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

10:04

Yeah, you felt like your soul was stifled, like you've done everything you were supposed to. Now you're doing what you're supposed to, but now what? Yeah, I had a moment like that with my first job and I remember sitting and staying late with the bright office lights coming in, and I was still in my 20s and I'm like Jesus, this is what my life's supposed to be. I think I'm dead already. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

10:23

It's like now, yeah, so that's how I felt. I mean, for me, it was like this is not me, this is not what I really want to do. I'm doing it, you know, to get by, not to get by, even, so to speak. Just you know, I'm just doing it To do the right thing, just to do the right thing. Exactly that's the words I'm looking for, and luckily for me well, not luckily. At that time I thought it was the end of the world. I got married, I was pregnant with my first daughter and I was made redundant because we said a financial crash. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

10:54

Yeah, right Again, just to decrypt that. You were laid off. Yeah, I was laid off, yes, okay, no, no, no, this is like this is educational. X 50 already. So you know we're global audience. So you were pregnant. Did that kind of freak you out or were you like oh, thank God. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

11:12

A part of me was like oh, thank God, as you know, I didn't really want it anyway. So now I'm going to be a stay on mom, you know, because it was my first child, I just really want to now try and just be this mom and just stay calm. And you know, yeah, so that was what I was doing. Yeah, I thought, you know, I'm going to figure out what's my daughter's files. And so I was laid off. Make sure you don't do. And after seven months of being a mom, I'm like are you ready to lose your mind? What's the meaning of that? I can't do this. I'm so. 

11:43

I just felt like I was losing myself. I mean, I've been to so many talks about being a mom and losing your identity. I really thought like I was losing myself. You know, going to the baby model groups, I had the heart you know this, this is not me and I started looking for a job. Actually, I didn't really. And at the same time, I was divided by, you know, by taking land bags, adding a bit of stuff to it, redesigning it, reconstructing it. How did that happen? So I was just doing that, because I was bored, just being there with my daughter. Yes, I was doing that before you know what kind of bags were you? 

12:21

buying. I was going to put a bellow road in Nothing, ale, and I was buying vintage bags. I was then, you know, taking them to be refurbished because the levers are worn out. Then I'll stitch some little designs in there and then I'll sell it to family and friends. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

12:38

So it kind of became like purposeful on the hunt, like you would go to Portobello Road and like look for bags that had some sort of authentic DNA and say, oh, I could do something with this and I could do something with that, and then and I forget that, and that kind of gives you a purpose. And then every week you would then go to Portobello Road, like then all of a sudden you were on a mission every week, like this is what I'm doing now. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

13:02

Yeah, precisely yeah, so I was just doing that just on the side. Was it really a business? 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

13:08

So it's a net organically happened. It was one day you were like oh, I could do something with that. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

13:13

Yeah, yeah, just one day, just turning in shopping and just thinking, oh, I can really do this. But, like I said, it was obvious that I was in on the side when my daughter was about seven months. I'm blinded to get back to work, but it was very close to the financial crash I think I walked into like employers not demanded. We're like you know what I want four days in the office, one day at home. And it's like is she crazy? I mean it's nowhere. Now we're back. Then it was. I'll forget it. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

13:42

I mean yeah, especially being a woman, especially being a mom. They were like who are you to demand something like that? Yeah, exactly. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

13:51

So eventually, you know I was going to believe, so Me. Then it was like, why don't you just start your own business? Like you have so much passion for design that let's start exploring. And that was the beginning of exploring London. And if you started thinking about it again, it's so ironic now because I wasn't very keen to start with at first and it was almost like he served me the idea. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

14:18

So, john, we're talking about our friend John, yeah, come on, your husband. So was it his idea to call it Florian? Like, what's the origin of that? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

14:28

It was his idea to call it Florian. He came up with that. I think he was trying to rescue his wife and he was trying to rescue me from mentally as well, because it was almost like I couldn't find a job. I want a flexibility because, remember, when I was made to London, I really wanted to be a stay-at-mom, but also, you know, I also couldn't do that. As well as trying to find that balance. So I think I was struggling a lot and, right, I think Florence started from a place of the name. Florian actually means growth, watching, flowering and nurturing something and watching it grow. And this was what. So it's on a fork. I like that name because he came up with all the different names and I'm like, yeah, I like that name, awesome the names. Yeah, the name Florian just stopped with me. So that's how Florence started. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

15:20

Oh, it's so funny because the sensibility of your bags, I think what's always drawn me to them, has been the uniqueness of the silhouette, the DNA, the color, and I think they definitely have a vintage feel to it and I mean, being as a handbag person, I feel confident in saying I can speak to the authenticity of the silhouettes and you know the cut out handles and so forth that it definitely has always had its own DNA and very throwback and having the confidence to do color, which back then was really hard to come by. Yeah, if you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and you didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer but aren't trained and designed, this is for you. If you have a handbag brand and need strategy and direction, this is for you. 

16:21

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16:29

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Tola Adeagbo

Guest

17:37

When I started designing bags for Florian, I really wanted to design something and I like the fact that you make your color something that injects color into the everyday, because, like you know, london is very gloomy, very, very rainy, very depressing sometimes. So I work with a lot of colors and my aesthetics are very bold, which embodies, you know, kind of my personality as well, and I want the Florian woman to feel confident. So when I'm designing the bag, I want something that would last us over season, so more or less season less. Aesthetic needs to be very strong but yet feminine, so it's like trying to find those two balances. So a lot of our design kind of just marry both boldness and, you know, femininity. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

18:30

How did you go from buying these vintage bags and getting them refurbished to? You know like you definitely had some sort of practice or academic, you know, in terms of design, like you had the basics. But how did you go from that to getting your first sample, to getting your first order, to getting your first stoccas? Because that's like a bit of a, that's a jump, especially with John being like hey, give it a go and it's like well, where do I start? Like, what did you do? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

19:02

I mean what's very close to this again, but the first thing that really gave us that seal of approval, it's the embargo and now I've said this before each one applied for it. I think I was sorry because, like I said, the first thing, you try to describe suppliers and they've started learning about nervous. They're learning about what works, what doesn't work, what materials you want to work with. So those are all behind the scenes and that takes a lot of time. And even now I'm learning, adding your learning of the boat, the boat. I traveled to China, traveled to Spain, to so many different places, even within Europe, trying to find suppliers for the bag. That was even before we launched a website for the bag. So do you recommend that? I actually do. I think it's important because sometimes the easy part is, you know, finding a name for your brand. All these things are very like encouraging. Yeah, it's very tough. We're encouraging like, but it's very fantasy because you're just stuck. You know, yeah, what my website to look like this, and I mean I mentor a lot of people where they spent so long on the aesthetics of the website but there's nothing about the product. Yeah, but they're like, yeah, what I'm going to get samples made, but it's no product, there's nothing. 

20:19

So I would say, like research your product first. Research the market first. Research your competitors. Who's in what you're doing? It was the price. What's your unique selling point? Why are you different? As you know that every market is saturated now, there's no new idea under the sun. It's like what are you bringing is different? 

20:40

And those questions you have to be be honest with yourself. I would even advise you to get a consultant, because I asked myself this question what was I honest with myself? I don't think so. I would say, yeah, this is easy. You know there are competitors. You know we can design buys, then look like this and we can sell it to any. We know our target market. But you need someone that would help you evaluate the market properly and help you kind of decide why I really want to do this. Do I really want to spend my life savings, all my time and effort, stuff, in this business? Is it truly my passion or is it, I don't know, an extensive, highly passion viable? Yeah, exactly, is my passion viable? Those are really important questions, more now more than ever. So that's the overall. I didn't even have lost the question. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

21:30

Well, you know, how did you figure out to get your first sample made? How did you go from there? Was it like a Google search? Like like it's so funny, when you're unfamiliar with the process you don't even realize it's called the sample. Okay, so what I pay for the sample isn't going to be what I pay for production. Oh, so my samples I shouldn't get done at the same place where I do my production. But you think you need to do everything at the same place. You want to have everything done locally, domestically, so you can, you know, sit on top of your manufacturer. And then you realize they hate you that much more because you don't know what you're doing and you're paying them by it. And then they're like okay, I'll do the sample. Now you need to go away. You're like, oh, I need to start over again. Now what? So it's this learning curve cycle. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

22:13

This is a lot I think was important and I would advise anybody to find inventor, find somebody that's done it before, or sometimes even pay somebody, because I remember not knowing what a MLQ was. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

22:28

I'm like is that a MLQ? A MLQ? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

22:32

Yeah, minimal, all that kind of thing. There's so many different terminologies that you know absolutely nothing about. So I mean, google is your friend. Now Everybody can start. All you have to do is go on Instagram, well, social media, go Google, and then you think you know you can just start a business. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

22:48

So back then, finding my suppliers, I went into Google, but then I traveled as well because I wanted to see the future, how did you tell John, like I need to go to Italy, I need to go to Spain, this is a work trip, or was he like go for it. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

23:02

Yeah, he was like go for it, and sometimes we went to Spain together, but I went to China by myself and that was, you know, was that terrifying, that terrifying, but also a massive learning curve as well. So I've learned so much through that that, you know, trying to make our samples in China and then decided we want to, you know, produce in China and what we phrase there, oh my goodness, almost ended the business as well. So I've learned so much over the years. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

23:30

Are you? Because I know you also and I could be incorrect. I know you produced in Spain. I believe you may or may not have produced in Portugal. How are you able I mean, you're lucky, being in the UK, that for you to go to Spain is a lot of it's like us going to Florida, but without the same benefits. So how, I'll take Spain over Florida for a short trip. But how are you able to make these decisions and come to these conclusions Like, okay, the MLQ for China was too difficult, or I can't have the same control, or I don't know how the taxes and duties have impacted China and UK versus China and US, but I know it's almost prohibitive right now for somebody to do small production runs from here to there and it's better to go into almost a European country. So how have you navigated all of that? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

24:22

So when I started, the initial thing was to actually produce, because I thought Florida, london, we're going to make everything in the UK. So I went, yeah, so we went to Somerset where Merbrie samples, and I took a trip there, found quite a manufacturer there, but the only thing you get is really, really expensive, because part of what I wanted to do was to have bags that are an attainable price point. So I didn't really want it to compete with luxury brands, but it was possible to do that. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

24:49

And what was the attainable price point? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

24:51

So I didn't really want to go over 500 pounds for a bag, so we didn't really want to exceed that. But if we made in the UK, I mean the quantities were very small but the prices were ridiculous. But then with the UK manufacturing as well because, like I said, a lot of my bags are very structured and they struggled to produce that I mean we wasted so much money at first and that's a learning curve. That was the learning curve we produced in London, first our samples and I remember after the third sample I'm like they're never going to get it. This is not what I had in paper. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

25:30

So that's why I started. Did you look into Cambridge? Just out of curiosity, knowing that Cambridge I'm not kidding like I spoke to Julie Dean from Cambridge Satchel, like she built the factory. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

25:42

Yes, yes, yeah, and then she works with vegetable town level, so it's very different. I think they work very well with that in the UK, but not so much like normal car skin level. It was really difficult Even buying the level in the UK. It was imported from Italy, as I said, to go to the source Right, so it was really difficult. I feel we need to invest in the UK in our manufacturing, especially for other bags and leather goods, but it's a topic for another day, maybe not for you. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

26:13

I know who they should hire to be that spokesperson. Yeah, so, in conclusion, after you went through all this, you went through a few countries. Right? You did do production in Spain for a while too, didn't you? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

26:30

Yes. So winter Spain actually made it. We went to Spain to produce, to do like a short production of a particular bag. But then the structural styles that I was designing they recommended I'll go to China. So they're like, you know what best for you to go to China, because you know we have they'll say to a lot of these designs they would get it much easier in China. So I'm like, yeah, then I'm saying that's why I took the trip to China. I'm like, okay, you know people straddle from China, but I'm going to, you know, take a chance and go to China. 

27:07

And it kind of started okay, but then it just turned out to be a disaster that it came back to Europe. So where are they produced now? Bags are produced in Turkey. So I finally, after many years of like, working with so many different you know manufacturers, we found a third generation atelier in Turkey and they produce all their bags now. So they take a lot of pride in what we do. Is every call it's everything I want. It took me five years, six years or so many different suppliers and so many different manufacturers to find somebody that I'm really comfortable with. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

27:47

It's definitely a journey and you know, I've spoken to designers from all over, from Mexico, from Morocco, from Turkey. I'm trying to think I know there was another country and each one has eventually, I mean in those kinds of circumstances, was able to go back and saying like, hey, we might as well empower, employ the local people here, because they have the skill set, because they've always had the skill set, but they just need to be taught how to modernize it and then to make it something more commercial. I get that. It's so frustrating because I know in your heart of hearts you would obviously prefer to do it in the UK, but it's like, yeah, what are you going to do? You're a small business and you want your product to sell and you want to get it into the hands of people. So it's like at some point you're playing this dance. Has anyone called you out on saying it's not manufactured in the UK whilst naming it London? No See, nobody cares. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

28:43

No, no one has ever said that. You know why are you throwing London? You know manufacturing in London, I mean, I even loved it. So the designs are designed in London. Yeah, so that I think that is for nobody really. No, yeah, I don't, we're not really known in London, or I don't know, for lever goods. I think if I was Italian that was going somewhere else. That might be different. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

29:11

Where do you think you're best well known now across the world? Do you think it's the US or do you think it's the UK? At this point, I think it's the US. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

29:19

My goodness, we're currently stopped the shop, but a lot of our customers I would say 60% of our customers are from the US. Yeah, new York, la, and I'm so familiar with all the different states. We get a lot of our customers from the US. So I'm just, I love the US, I love them in the US, I love their support, I love the fact that in the US, I think it's a female black owned brand, I think it's really celebrated in the US and you know, that is just. It goes a long way, I think, in the US. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

30:01

Do you ever throw in? Nigerian born. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

30:05

Yeah, yeah, from time to time, I think it's weird. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

30:09

I think it's part of your career, 100%. I think it's part of your DNA and I think it's part of your story. And I think the relevance of brands with fans and you know, as you said, usp Unique selling point the customer right now is so much more discerning and she, he or they are much more keen to want to know the person behind the brand, want to know the why, want to know the inspiration, whereas before that was just, you know, a lost page on your site called blog, where you'd be, like I was walking down the countryside and it only fell and lo and behold, now there's a bag, inspired like it has to come from something real, and the customer wants to see you take it for a test drive. They want to see you speaking about the value points of what makes it so special. And you yourself have turned into an influencer of some discretion as well, which such a fan of watching you come out of cars. I was like what's she wearing today? 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

31:14

Oh, thank you, Thank you, love it, love it. I think you're right. When we started Slurring, I really didn't add this action up on the brand, because you get a PR company and people just want to know what magazine you're in or not. You per se your bags and now it's very different. People want to know what on this brand was a story behind this brand? You know how did she, you know, start flooring what inspires it? X, y, z. So that's why I started my personal Instagram page to sort of show my day to day, not complete a child. Free me too. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

31:53

I mean, you know, the funniest bit is, since the pair of you have come to the awards the second time, when we re honored you not the first, because you came up, you showed up alone the first- I remember you said on stage I'm not John, just in case you were one but I'd like to say that he's been very Banksy and since that time I've never actually seen him again. So I firmly believe he's alive and kicking somewhere, but he is. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

32:26

You can't make that up. No, no, no. He makes an appearance on my story from time to time, but not on my big feet, oh my gosh. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

32:35

So, tola, I am just such a huge, huge fan of Florian, always had been from the Turquoise bag that won that best handbag and style and design and audience fan favorite and there was a reason why I think so many people gravitated towards it. And you know, I can only say that, you being part of our community, that all I want is good things coming to you, because the brand, the brand, should be sustainable, because what you've done for it and what you've created in your aesthetic and your eye and you know I think people almost get annoyed hearing this cheesiness, but if people haven't seen a Florian bag, it definitely carries its own DNA and I'm here to see it grow. I'm here for that, thank you so much Thank you. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

33:23

It means the world. Thank you, Amy. Thank you for your support over the years. It's really appreciated. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

33:29

Well, well, Tola, how can we? We fuck you? Follow Florian. How can we buy a beautiful bag of yours? Let us know, Okay. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

33:38

Hi, florian London. You can follow on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter it's Florian London, uk. You can follow me personally. It's Florian, underscore C and in three E's. So that's T, e, e, e. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

33:57

Not to make it easier. 

Tola Adeagbo

Guest

33:59

Just to make it easier, and it also. You can purchase Florian London on wwwflorianlondon.com. You can also stop on ShopBop, so you can also check it out on ShopBop. 

Emily Blumenthal

Host

34:13

My dear, thank you so much for being part of the Handbag Designer 101 podcast. I can't wait to see what happens next. Talk to you soon. Talk to you soon, thank you. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single platform at Handbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time. 

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